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itsgodepi · 1 month

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If I lose my mind | Ch. 9

Series summary: When life has given you more than enough lemons and you cannot figure out how to make a lemonade, the only way to make it work is to get rid of the whole basket. But was it neccesary to send you to a whole different dimension for that? A juicer would have done the job, really. Or, one day you go to sleep as a normal person and the next you wake up as a Formula One driver. You've never been a fan but isn't it like, one of the most exclusive sports? Pairing: CL16, LH44, CS55, DR3 x fem!reader Chapter: Previous | Next Word Count: 2.7k Also on AO3

You recognize his laugh now. Not the one recorded by the nosy photographers or the overstepping interviewers, but the real one. The way he leans his head to the side and his eyes turn into beautiful crescent moons. Those low chuckles as well, so carefree and sweet, resounding in your head and bringing you back to the hundreds of videos saved in your camera roll, the ones you have been watching for nights on end since you found that phone.

It is difficult to decipher if the goosebumps raising in your skin come from the happiness the mere sound induces inside you, or the fear of realizing how deep you have been dragged into this nightmare.

After landing in Belgium, Daniel’s first instinct had been to send you a message, an invite out for dinner which he admitted was long overdue. Two months had already gone by since you fainted in Austria —or better said, the day you woke up surrounded by a whole Formula 1 team in an unknow place—, two months since he fought with Nick in the middle of the track and promised to ‘talk later’. Two months.

Safe to say you were surprised enough to ignore the hundreds of messages higher on the chat. It’s better to take in this kind of news one by one.

“My friend said the steak tartare was amazing, you should have a look at it” Daniel offers when you lower your eyes to the menu, skimming over the dishes as if that could help you ignore the tingling on your stomach

Pursing your lips, you finally focus your gaze on the words written before you. “I don’t know if…” you begin to show your doubts about the raw dish, trying to locate it on the menu among the rest of unrecognizable food names.

Daniel can see the exact second you find it.

“Don’t you dare look at the price,” the driver threatens when your eyes widen at the quantity, eyebrows furrowed as you wonder if the meat is wrapped in gold or something “You’re not paying again, I’m telling you!”

“What do you mean again?” you ask through a chuckle, scanning the rest of the menu for a more reasonable option. After all, it is always Daniel who passes you gummies and other unhealthy treats under Nick’s nose when you are on the track, and not the other way around. It would have been impossible anyway, it’s only recently that you have acquired some form of payment.

Daniel calls for the waiter after a shake of his head, a smirk falling of his lips “Yeah, sure, I’ll let you play dumb now... gave them my card already, so no use in sneaking to the bathroom and paying behind my back”

To be fair, although you doubt you could have invited Daniel to more than a sip of coffee in the short time you’ve know him —you absolutely do not have the kind of money needed to invite a Formula One driver out, that’s become obvious, those kinds of antics do ring a bell or two.

After all, you may have picked them up from the best at that type of tricks: your father.

On your time away from home, you have found yourself holding onto the little pieces of your family which have so easily become a part of your personality over the years. Your father’s silent gestures of love, your mother’s caring nature, and honestly, being unable to talk to them had taken a toll on you. Probably, that is why you had melt into a poodle of tears when you heard your dad’s voice on the phone.

“¿A ti te parece normal estar dos meses sin llamar a tus padres? (Does it seem normal to you to go two months without calling your parents?) "

Even hearing his scoldings felt like the most precious moment of your life.

Charles had come crashing into the room as soon as he heard your cries, kneeling beside you on the floor thinking you might have hurt yourself with how fast you had run away to your room. His concerned look rapidly turning into one of confusion when you firmly held his hand and whispered between sobs “It’s my dad!”

The discovery of this new device had not only opened a channel of communication with your family, which had both been a blessing and a curse, but also brough an infinity of unanswered questions. Although the first few minutes of your conversation had been centered around your mother’s question about your wellbeing and if you had been eating well, it had not taken long until that precious moment was broken. After checking that you had been doing alright and apologizing for not talking to them, your father could not hold it any longer and started gushing about the amazing few races you had had before the break.

A reality check so sudden that it takes your breath away.

Their happiness and eagerness to congratulate you on the highest place of your career, managed to sober you up completely. You heart sinking with every compliment they threw at you, their desire to see you climb up in the sport, to see you win one day. “It will come” your mother says, as if any of this was real. As if they were real.

When you finally found your voice again, you had cut the conversation short with promises to call them soon —even if the mere thought of it made you nauseous.

This encounter only renewed your desire to break free from what had become you own personal prison, and that device was a new key for your escape. While the phone you had been carrying since the start of this journey only had a couple numbers from the team members saved on it, this one was filled to the brim with messages, photos,... a whole life encased in such a small object. Your life?

And somehow a main character in a large part of them was the man in front of you.

“You sure you don’t want to taste it?” Daniel queries with a half-smile, having clearly caught the way your eyes followed the delicious looking cake as the waiter placed it on the table

The colors rise to your cheeks in shyness, looking to the side while you jokingly sigh “Daniel, I won’t fit in the car if I keep eating...”

“You’ll drive mine then” he quickly resolves, taking a huge piece of the treat and offering the spoon to you. Honestly, you had swapped the list of amazingly sounding desserts for a simple tea because you felt too full to even think of eating anything else, but a spoonful of cake can’t hurt, right? “Have to wear the McLaren suit though”

Although you do it unconsciously, the look you give Daniel over the mouthful of cake, tells him everything he needs to know regarding your opinion on the bright orange race suit. The driver lets out a loud laugh, putting on his disbelieving facade as if that hadn’t been his intention in the first place.

“So nice hearing you criticize my team’s color, really, I don’t know why we stopped having lunch together. Yeah, not a clue...” Daniel scoffs, digging into his plate to drown his fabricated sorrows. So dramatic.

“I didn’t even talk!” you quip back to his amusement, just now having managed to get through the enormous bite of cake. Daniel only response is a disapproving shake of his head, and you let him have this one as you stir your tea. You are more interested in the second part of his grumbles “Why did we stop though?”

“Don’t know... I guess with the whole start of the season, new team and everything” Daniel relays with a frown, gesturing to the air as if to explain that life had gotten in between what seemed to be a tradition the two of you had. “And also, that fucking diet...” the driver snickers with a roll of his eyes, having thrown that last jab as joke to lighten up the mood after such serious turn of the conversation.

However, a soon as your eyes meet, he knows it’s been a misstep —even if it is just a coincidence that what he thinks is your how dare you say that? look is more of a what diet are you talking about? Look.

“Sorry, ‘shouldn't have said that” Daniel apologizes straight away, leaning back into his seat with a sigh and the last piece of the cake. The time it takes him to munch on the treat is enough for him to debate whether or not he should make his opinion on such an important cmatter. Finally, he opts for a more conservative approach “It’s just... you already know what I think about it. Nick too”

The mention of your Formula One trainer’s name makes all the alarms go off in your head, more so when the last time you saw them together, they were having a pretty heated conversation in the middle of a Grand Prix “Is that why you fought with Nick?”

You try to appear outwardly calm about the situation, swirling what’s left of your tea as if your hands weren’t trembling in anticipation. This is it, at last, some real information. Not some meaningless clues which do nothing but mess with your poorly constructed theories.

Your grandmother’s necklace burns against your chest, the feeling grounding you against all the thoughts brimming on your head. After all, the piece of jewelry is still the only fragment of an ever-distant reality, one you have kept safe and close to your heart ever since you found. You rest your hand over the pendant, sensing the heat even through the fabric of your blouse, as you wait for the response.

He brushes a hand over his curls, looking everywhere but at you. “Yeah, kind of... I mean,” he accepts, clicking his tongue and taking in a big breath, as if he couldn’t bring himself to say it plain and clear. Daniel takes a second to reorganize his thoughts, straightening up in his chair and leaning his arms over the table in deep thought. However, when you think he’s managed to make up his mind and talk, the only words that come out his lips are “Look, we shouldn't talk about this now”

A frown instantly forms on your expression at the premise, jaw set as you prepare yourself to most likely yell at Daniel everything that’s been on your mind thorough your time trapped here —whatever here means. You were finally going to clear one of the millions of unknowns surrounding this dream or whatever this is, and the man has the audacity to want to leave this incredibly important conversation for later. Oh, hell no.

“No, listen” Daniel tries to settle your worries, having perfectly recognized the signs of what was about to come for him, from the slight closing of you hand over the table to the uncredulous grin lightly lifting the side of your lips “We’ll talk in the ride back to the track. C’mon, I’ll drive you”

The soft sound of the radio fills the silence on the way out of the parking, a ballad which does absolutely not fit the speed at what your mind is running. Daniel can probably feel the weight of your stare, trying to let him have some space since it seems to be a sensitive topic for him, but so eager to learn what transpired between the two of them.

The driver decides to preface his explanation with a “Don't get mad at me, okay?”, a strained smile pulling at his lips. For starters, that sentence does sound familiar. “I know I should stay out of it, and I think... well, no, I know! I know you’ve been really stressed out lately, that everything’s different now and all of that. I mean, they won't shut up about the fucking ‘second year in F1’ or whatever”

Daniel tries to check your reaction out of the corner of his eye, his thoughts, although disorganized, always careful of your feelings. Yet, you can only regard him with a confused look.

“What I’m trying to say is... I think you’ve been pushing yourself too hard” the driver lets out, the words flowing out of him like they have been weighting him for too long. His urge to explain his intentions straight away, showing how much of a push back he was expecting from your part "Again, I’m not trying to start an argument, I’m just worried about you! I’ve seen you training, seen that diet... this is not good for you”

You’ve kept your eyes in the road in front thorough the conversation, taking in how concerned he has been about you. You had never seen this side of Daniel, he has always seen friendly and eager to help whenever you needed, but nothing had ever seen this deep. Still, you don’t understand what any of this has to do with his fight with Nick.

“I understand that...” you acknowledge his worries, making a mental note to check everything he said later. In the time you had spent following this professional motorsport driver schedule, none of it had seemed as harsh to you as he had mentioned. Maybe something changed? Why though? “So, Nick and you talked about that? Is that it?”

“Well, yes, Nick and I kind of had a... disagreement, yeah, we can call it that. About this new training plan you had going on. We had already talked about it like, back in Canada, and obviously nothing came out of it. But after Austria...” Daniel lets a second go while he enters the road, a harder grip on the steering wheel than needed. “Listen, I know we haven’t talked about it at all, I don’t know if you and Nick did?”

You almost want to laugh at the supposition, your trainer had shut down any attempts of talking about it the day after the incident, so you had eventually given up “No, nothing”

“I didn’t want to pressure you into talking about it but... We got really scared that day. I went to celebrate your qualy and, suddenly, you started panicking and freaking out! I didn’t know what to do, and then you fell unconscious. Do you remember any of it?” the driver wonders, his voice showcasing the whirlwind of emotions he went through despite the fact that he might be giving you a diluted version of what went down. You can only nod at him, the memories fresh on your mind “When they took you to the hospital, I thought, they for sure won’t let her race tomorrow, right? And then I see you on the track, all dressed up again, I couldn’t believe it...”

“Didn’t Nick say he sent you a text?” you try to fill in, fingers fiddling with your own phone. Two months might have passed, but the images of that day keep replaying in your mind every single night.

Daniel clicks his tongue in disbelief, eyes still focused on the road “Yes, he sent me two fucking lines saying the doctor discharged you, that you were fine and that’s literally it. You can take my phone and see it for yourself! I kept blowing up his phone but that’s the only thing he would say: exhaustion, she’s alright”

That would explain the way Daniel approached you in Austria, how furious he had been with Nick after the secrecy with which the incident had been treated. The first thing he asked you that day was if you were alright, after the pre-race activities had finished and as away from the public as he could knowing you were in the middle of a Grand Prix. That is why he pounced at Nick when he mentioned the exhaustion diagnosis, fed up with the discourse. The distrust he had in your trainer’s statement clear in his words.

Yet another thread to be pulled.

Author's note: Hey, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It's been a while! My masters is clearly kicking my ass and I didn't have a single second to write, but here it is. Thank you all so much for reading, any kind of interaction is greatly appreciated!

Taglist: @purplephantomwolf @raye2000 @yuiiimd @drezzerk33 @leclercdream @homie0sapien @minkyungseokie @carlossainzwho @rewmuslupin @kyuupidwrites @raevyng @lazybot @gills-lounge @hiraethrhapsody @jjkclub @darleneslane @therealcap @aespie

#daniel ricciardo x reader #carlos sainz x reader #charles leclerc x reader #lewis hamilton x reader #f1 x reader #f1 fic #f1 x you #formula one x reader #formula one x you #f1 imagine

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jakesflora · 6 months

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Forgive Me.

Jake Kiszka Priest AU

word count: 2.1k

you have a confession.

warnings: smut, sacrilegious.

You never missed a Sunday, being a catholic was all you knew, since you were a child and your parents dragged you and your brothers to church bright and early every sunday. You had heard news among the grapevine that there was a new priest coming, to take over for Father James, as he was getting older and needed to retire. You were dressed in your finest attire, to meet the new priest, dressed in a pretty black skirt, with a white sweater to cover up as much skin as possible. Your heels click on the stairs as you walk up to the doors of the church, the older ladies greeting you as you walk in. Father James, was standing at the end of the pews, greeting you with a smile, “Very nice to see your face this morning, Y/N” you sent him a warm and welcoming smile, he had always been nice to you. Everyone had been speculating why exactly he was leaving, some people said it was because he needed to retire, others said he committed blasphemy and he's no longer able to be a preacher. Rumor has it, the new father is much younger, and less experienced, but he was in fact a very holy man according to most. You took your seat at your normal spot, three rows back, towards the middle of the aisle. The ushers at the back, shut the doors as you heard the familiar bell start to ring, signaling that the service is starting. Father James walked in from the back of the church, followed by a young man, his hair was a medium shade of brown, and his eyebrows were slightly furrowed as his brown eyes scoped out the many pews filled with people. Father James, cleared his throat and spoke into the mic, “This brings me pure sadness to say, but this will be my last sermon with you all. It's been lovely to get to know you all, this will be your new father,” the man raised his hand from beside him, sending all of us a wave. “His name is Jake, but you may call him Father Jake, he will be around after the sermon, to ask questions and hold confessionals if you would need one, may god be with you all.” and with that he started his normal trek on about god, and his disciples.

After he finishes speaking, he bids you all goodbye, telling you all once again that the new Father Jake would be available in the confessional room if needed. A ping of guilt flashed into your eyes knowing good and well there were things you never felt quite comfortable telling Father James given he was so much older and wiser than you. After mostly everyone had cleared out from the pews and were now just standing outside talking amongst each other, you trotted your way down the narrow hallway towards the back of the church. Hidden in the back corner was the confession room, where most women had spent most of their time with Father James telling him about the urges they had to do something most people would say is unholy, and by most people meaning the catholic church. You gently placed a knock on the door, the knocks echoing in the hallway as you did so. “You may come in,” you heard from the other side of the door, doing as the man said, you turned the knob and opened the door. Once inside there he sat, the man you have come to know as Father Jake. He cleared his throat and spoke up, “How may I help you today?” as you walked your way over to the chair in front of his desk, you felt as if his eyes were burning holes into your body, into your flesh, and you weren't sure exactly how to feel about it. In fact, maybe it was all just in your head. You sat down in the chair across from him, crossing your legs like a proper lady. “I’ve come to confess some…urges, if you will.” the nerves were evident in your voice, but in a way you did not feel ashamed, he seemed young enough to understand how it is to be a person your age and feel the things you feel, as he couldn’t be over thirty years old.

“Ah yes, what would those urges be…? What's your name? I did not catch it.” he spoke, sorting out papers clattered about the wooden desk top table. “My names y/n” you said, a small smile upon your face. “Lovely to meet you father.” he looked up from his papers, once again looking at you like something was severely wrong with you, so you just continued to speak. “The urges father, they get so hard to fight sometimes, I've always wondered how it felt, the feeling must be good enough for so many people to stray away from their beliefs because of it.” he was listening to you quite intently, playing with the cross rosary that was once clad to his chest, now gripped in his hands, his brow furrowed. “The feeling of what y/n? What is this feeling that you are so ashamed of?” You shifted in your seat, almost in a way kind of scared to tell him what it is that you’re truly feeling. “Well Um..,” you were fiddling with the ruffles of your skirt, trying not to make eye contact as the thought of saying these words to someone, a holy man like him, seems so wrong. “I wonder what being touched by another feels like, and I know it's against the rules, and in no way am I rebelling but there's something that's so interesting about it.” with the last bit of that sentence you grew the urge to finally look up at him, to meet his brown eyes. His eyes were dark, and it was almost scary, he looked almost.. evil? You didn’t quite know the word for it. “So you think, that the touch of another is enough to break your vows to the church, your vows to the lord?” He now stood up, the vestment he was wearing now straightening up around his waist, and the rosary now falling back to its original place. He was now towering over you, his hand coming up to hold your chin in his hands, “Is that what you’re telling me, sweet y/n?” Your mouth had slightly parted, any spit that was in your mouth has now dried up, swallowing hard to the best of your abilities. “I…I’m sorry father I just.” With a jerk of your chin he cut you off. “Say no more, I've heard enough. It's time to confess your sins before the lord.” He pulls you up out of the chair, with one pull of your arm. Standing beside him now, you realized how much larger he was than you, how much stronger he was. He pointed to the back of the room, where there was a large painting of Jesus on the wall. “Go to him, get on your knees before him, and beg for forgiveness for even thinking such a thing.” He dropped your chin, your legs shaking as you walked over to the painting and did exactly as he told you to do, now rested upon your knees in front of the painting. You heard his feet behind you, and the door lock click as he made his way over to you meaning he in fact locked the two of you in here. There was a feeling in between your thighs that you had never quite felt before, why is it happening now? What even is it? You heard the scraping of a chair on the wooden floor, his chair now beside you as he sat down in it. He grabbed your hair roughly, pulling your head back to look at him. “Do you feel forgiven my dear? I think I know another way you could be forgiven.” The rasp in his voice is much more evident now than it was earlier. “Let me show you.” He grabbed your hand, placing it on his crotch, rubbing it slowly as he let out a low groan. “What are you doing Father? This isn't right.” he refused to let your hand go, still making you rub his now growing cock. “Isn't it though sweetheart? Let me show you how it feels to be touched, while the lord is watching us.” the feeling between your thighs grew tenfold, immediately complying to what he was saying and doing. He lifted up his vestment, taking off the pants he was wearing underneath it. Exposing the cock that was now hard at the thought of taking your innocence and ruining it.

Turns out Jake wasn’t a holy man at all, now was he? “Now let's take off that pretty little skirt of yours that I've been looking at all day.” He lifted you up off your knees, ripping off the skirt that was once what was hiding the wetness of your panties from him and the rest of the world. “That's what i'm talking about, look how pretty you are angel,You're an angel sent from the lord himself.” all you could do was whine, no words came to mind minus the thought of him touching you. He pulled your panties to the side and ran his finger up and down the slit of your pussy, playing in the pile of wetness that has gathered upon your clit. He smirked, knowing good and well that all of this was for him, he lifted his fingers up to his mouth with your wetness still coating them, popping them in his mouth. “Oh angel, you taste so good. I just want another taste.” that did not stop you from grinding your hips on his still hardening cock noticing that the friction felt really good. He wrapped his arms around your waist, lifting you safely in the air as he walked you over to his desk, where he laid you down before getting on his knees himself. He pulled you right to the edge, so that his mouth was now level to your cunt, as he began to lick gently at the sensitive nub between your folds, now not being able to keep the moans of his holy name from slipping your mouth. He gripped your thighs so rough that there was going to absolutely be bruises as he completely devoured your dripping cunt. Your hands now tangled in the brown hair that you had watched walk in earlier, legs wrapping around his head not wanting this to ever end. He smirked into your wetness like a cocky son of a bitch before adding two fingers into the mix now working them in and out of you with a quick motion. Your back begins to arch off the desk at all the feelings he was making you feel. You felt a low burning sensation in the bottom of your stomach, “Father I--” was all you were able to say before he completely stopped. “Not yet, I want you to cum on my cock, I want you to bless me with your cum little dove”

You looked down at him, now watching him stand up and pump his cock a couple of times, pushing the hair out of his face as it was stuck to his forehead with a mix of your wetness and sweat. “Now, this might hurt angel, but I promise it will feel great in the end.” That was the only warning he gave you before he slammed his cock into your little innocent pussy that's never taken cock before in its life, much less a man the size of him. He let out moans of your name as he slid his cock in and out of you, all you could do was whimper as he ruined you, taking the one thing that you were told to keep as long as you could, away from you, but god almighty did it feel good. Your nails dug into his back, leaving scratch marks as the rosary around his neck dangled in your face. His hand reaching up and grasping hard at your neck as he squeezed as hard as possible. “Dirty little slut, how dare you do this? You’re ruined.” he spat, smacking at your cheek as gently as possible. You felt the feeling once again building in your lower stomach, “Father I-- I.” you could hardly get out words. “Bless me angel, give it to me” was all he had to say before you were writhing in pleasure around his cock. Which was enough to send him over the edge as well, filling up your now fucked out pussy with his cum as he slowly slowed down his pace before pulling out of you completely. He placed a kiss on your forehead, “Consider yourself forgiven, in my eyes.”

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 7 months

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“Of my virtue, I am justly proud.”

Let the ringing bells resound, bringing this wish to life.

The chance encounter once longed for… let’s make it a reality.

Finally, the threads of Fate are intertwining.

At Last, we meet. Shall we Dance?

"... So, it is you they have sent to retain me."

"Erm, yes...“

"I see."

"I hope that’s not an issue for you, Rollo-senpai.”

“… It is acceptable to alternatives I was thinking of.”

“A-Ahahahah…”

"Hmm."

He pressed a handkerchief to his face, concealing his frown but not his judgmental eyes, harsh as stone. Raven shivered—yet she knew to keep her own gaze trained on him in spite of the many complex feelings twisting in her gut. Fear, hope, confusion, kinship.

Rollo Flamme looked out of place on Night Raven College grounds. His austere face made him appear more mature than the average student, more scornful elder than a young man. With his big hat and flowing robes, it was as though he had stepped out of another era and into present day, not through a magical mirror from one place to another.

Hidden away in the mirror chamber, two characters out of place.

He coughed stiffly.

This is so awkward... Should I say something? I-I should definitely say something in a reunion scene like this, right?!

Before Raven could, Rollo did.

"... Well?" The single word was pointed like a jagged shard of glass. "Shall we be on our way? We’re on a tight schedule, are we not?”

“A-Actually, no! The headmaster wishes for your stay to be as relaxing as possible, so we’re free to proceed at a leisurely pace.” Raven attempted to sound cheery. “Rather than focus on our facilities, he thinks it would be more beneficial to spend time among the student body. Classes, meals, extracurriculars, daily living—things like that. This way, you can get a better sense of how… inviting our community is.”

There was a longer than anticipated pause. The air in the mirror chamber chilled, freezing her feathers over.

“Inviting is not the descriptor I would have used.”

“The headmaster’s choice of phrasing, not mine,” Raven explained. “I am only serving as the messenger.”

“Yes, of course."

His was a face that didn't smile. Even his eyes seemed dead and disinterested, none of the light from the crystalline walls or the lit sconces reflecting off his pupils. They were like black holes, devouring all hope.

“I-It’s nice to see you again,” Raven tried again, careful with her choice of words. “You’ve been responding to some of my letters, but it feels much different to see you in the flesh once more. You look… better… than you did in our last meeting.”

He scoffed--a little emotion, but nothing positive. It was soft, audible to her, but perhaps not to the students milling about outside. “Is that a joke?"

"Not at all. I'm glad to see you in good spirits. You seemed a little peeved in your replies, so I was worried that you would retain that sentiment."

It didn't have the intended effect of soothing him. His frown only deepened.

“Do you have a preference for what you would like to see first, or…?”

"You must be enjoy playing this mind game," Rollo finally spat out. "Well? If you're going to jeer and taunt, then get on with it. No need to maintain the theatrics."

"What?" The accusation sent her reeling. Raven scrambled to collect herself. "No, I'm not... I simply... Wh-What are you implying?!"

"Come now. You understand the true nature of things, just as I do. We were both witnesses to it.” Frost lined his every breath. “Why bother with the charade? If you mean to mock me, then cut right to it. You deplorable lot have won. Relish in it. Rub it in.”

“These are my true feelings, Rollo-senpai." She shook her head sadly. “You’ve gone and done something terrible, but I don’t want to rub any more salt in your wound.”

“So you claim. Yet here you stand, speaking down to me as though I were as fragile as a glass slipper. That is equally as insulting, if not more so.”

“Why is that?”

Raven’s question hovered between them. It was a specter, haunting the present while clinging to the past.

"It's absurdly self-righteous."

Wow, look who's talking.

She held her tongue, knowing uttering it out loud wouldn't help the situation. Instead, Raven said, “I don't know what you believe, but as a storyteller, I believe that everyone has a story to tell, and a capacity to do good. They just have to be given the chance to act and the right encouragement. I don’t think there’s anything 'insulting' about that.”

"Hmph, this naive nonsense again. I'd have thought you'd know better by now." Clasping his hands together, the diamond-cut stone upon his ring glinted sinisterly. A contained hatred flickered in Rollo's eyes. "... Mere kindness will not put my motivations to rest."

"Maybe not, but I never intended for it to. A city isn't built in a day, and neither is one's character. It takes a journey and a supporting cast to get to that point. In that sense, you're not much different than me or any other student at NRC. You'll fit right in."

"Don't liken me to you and your ilk," Rollo snapped. "You're without virtue. Sparks that--if left untamed--can grow into an inferno, tearing down any and all life in its path. You drown yourself in debauchery and bring about nothing but pain and misery to this world."

“Is magic like fire to you? But there are gentle fires too. Fire that does not harm and destroy, but warms and guides. It’s energy and life. The same can be true of magic.”

His neutral mask slipped. For a second, Raven caught pure venom and rage on him--a glimpse into his true self. Rollo comfortably settled into a glare, his eyes alight with smoke and cinders and a smirk at his mouth.

"I can see that spending your time among the depraved has only further poisoned your thoughts. The dangerous ideology Draconia spews has seeped in deep."

"I'm not parroting Malleus-senpai's words. They're strictly my own."

"Then you're more brainwashed than you realize. Poor thing. I almost pity you myself."

Rollo took a step toward her, the motion vaguely threatening. She hadn't taken note of their height discrepancy until now--how he towered over her like an imposing bell tower over a town.

He lowered his face to meet the bird's, scorn searing into her. Shadows ringed them in an eerie, ritualistic dance.

"I once thought you capable of seeing my point of view. I could not have been more wrong. Your ashen soul is wholly unable to be salvaged.

"You play the part of savior when you're the one in need of rescuing yourself," Rollo hissed, voice low. "However, you'll find that I'm not so merciful of a man. To shepherd a black sheep to safety is to invite trouble to the entire flock. You've made your allegiances clear--and for that, I will not hesitate to strike you down when the next opportunity presents itself."

A warning.

Raven quivered at his promise of retribution, the unrelenting fervor burning in his hateful heart. Her legs threatened to give way, holding only by the fear stiffening the feeling in her limbs. If Rollo was a wildfire, then she was an animal entangled in its blazing heat.

She searched within herself for a fitting response. A rebuttal, a challenge. Something a hero might sassily retort to inspire confidence and another day.

A single wish resounded in her mind. It rang clearly in the darkness, cutting with clarity and dispelling doubt.

One man's advice, loud and true.

“Young Crowley, you must not waver. Let your conviction be known. For your words to be heard, and for them to resonate with those who need it most... That is what you desire most of all, is it not?”

What I desire the most is...

A happily ever after for everyone.

Raven swallowed her pride and terror, seizing all her courage. She tugged on Rollo's arm, forcing him to lurch forward, falling in step with her.

“Wh-What are you…?! Release me at once, you vile villain!!"

He wobbled, his handkerchief fluttering to the floor. Seriousness shifted into shock as they plunged into a hallway jam-packed with students in striped ties and armbands.

Harsh light pooled on them. Curious heads turned. Staring, judging. Silencing the guilty—silencing Rollo.

"Sorry, no can do!" Raven called back. She forced a snaggle-toothed smile as she hauled him after her. "Let's be off now!! There's so much for you to see and do here at our Night Raven College."

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst oc #Malleus Draconia #Rollo Flamme #Rollo Flamm #Raven Crowley #disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland oc #blog event rules go live soon!!#miss raven voice) it’s okay guys we can fix him #uhhhh good luck with that #angry meowmeow sighting #their relationship is basically hate-love??? ig #he's trying so hard to be scary and raven's just like 'okay king pop off'#Rollo at the Writing Desk

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stiles-o-dylan24 · 9 months

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King of My Heart Chapter 19 - The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

Author: @stiles-o-dylan24 Pairing: Steve x Summer Byers (eventually) Word Count: 5.8k Warnings: language, mentions of guns, dual pov SERIES SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

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SUMMER POV

Rain is on the forecast for today so Steve thankfully offered to stop by the house to pick me up and take me to work so I didn’t have to ride my bike.

I meet him outside and climb into the front seat, smiling over at him as I shove my bag and my rain jacket down against the side of my leg “Thanks for picking me up.”

He lifts his hand off the steering wheel, shifting back in his seat as he returns with a smile of his own and stammers “Yeah, yeah– of– of course, any time.”

Once we get to the mall we unlock the front gate and head into Scoops, working through the opening checklist and getting everything ready for when the mall opens.

Robin shows up almost an hour into our shift and she grabs her headphones out of her backpack and sets them on the back counter while we wait for Dustin to arrive with the tape recorder.

Once Dustin gets to Scoops we make our plan for the day– he hands the tape recorder to Robin so that she and I can continue listening to the recording and see if there’s any other clues or part of the code to translate.

While we stay at the ice cream parlor to do that Steve and Dustin head out for a stake out of sorts, trying to see if they can see anything out of the ordinary or any evil Russians that stand out among the mall patrons.

I’ve got the headphones on and I’m listening to the recording again while Robin wipes down some tables. I hear the bell ring on the front counter a few times before I look over my shoulder and see Erica and her friends here once again.

I smile at her and spin around to face her, dropping the headphones down to rest around my neck “Yes, Erica?”

She smiles a little forced smile and brightly announces “I’d like to try the peanut butter chocolate swirl, please.”

I snort and shake my head softly at her “No, I’m sorry but no more samples today.”

Her face falls as she asks “Why not?” and Robin walks back behind the counter, chiming in “Because you have been in here the last few days, including this morning, sampling flavors.”

Erica swings her offended eyes from Robin and back at me and I raise my brows once with my words “You’re abusing our company policy which is to allow someone to try one or two flavors to make a decision”

“I am trying to make a decision” Erica counters and I’m quick to laugh once and throw back at her “You’ve tried every flavor twice– you know which ones you like.”

Erica throws me a frustrated look and looks around “Where’s the sailor man?”

Robin chuckles and I shake my head at Erica as I answer her “Sorry, but Harrington can’t help you today– he’s busy.”

“Busy with what?” she asks and I share a look with Robin who smiles and answers “Spycraft.”

⋇・.・゜゜・.・゜゜・.・゜゜・.・゜゜・.・⋇

STEVE POV

Dustin and I head towards the center of the food court where the seating area is surrounded by an outline of planters that are filled with fake plants. We head to the back left of the bench area so we’ll be able to see everyone walking by from the front main entrance of the mall as well as the escalators.

Dustin lifts up the binoculars that he brought and hands them over to me. I grab them and toss the strap behind my neck before I lift the binoculars up so I can look through them. I slowly move from side to side so I can look at everyone I can see around us down on the first floor as well as up above us on the second floor.

“You see anything?” Dustin asks and I make a noise as I reply “Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for.”

“Evil Russians” he says like it’s obvious and I resist the urge to roll my eyes as I say slowly “Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like.”

“Tall, blond, not smiling” Dustin offers and I sigh “Mm-hmm?” while Dustin continues “Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing.”

“Right, okay, duffel bags” I repeat absentmindedly and move the binoculars so I can look up at the second floor level, scoffing at what I see next “Oh, you've gotta be kidding me.”

“What?” I hear Dustin say and I grimace as I fill in “Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky.”

“If you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars” Dustin sighs, however, I just talk over him “Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench.”

Dustin makes a noise and says “Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?” as he grabs the binoculars from my hands and pulls them towards him. Problem being the strap is still around my neck so I lean with his pull and say “Stop, hey,” at the same time he says “Give me those.” I succeed in removing the strap attached to the binoculars from my neck and toss it at him “Just stop being so impatient.”

Dustin takes the binoculars and lifts them up to look through them, throwing at me “Besides I don't get why you're even looking at other girls–” he starts and I’m quick to interrupt “I wasn’t looking at other girls, I just saw them together and it was a little appalling.”

Dustin looks over at me just to roll his eyes before he goes back to looking through the binoculars “You literally have the perfect girl right in front of you.”

I sigh, lifting my arm up to lean against the planter wall in front of us “Seriously, if you say Summer again…”

“Summer– okay, Steve,” he drops the binoculars once more to look right at me while he stresses “Summer. I mean what the hell have you been doing for the past few months?”

“Nothing man–” I start and he just nods, interrupting me “Exactly, nothing–" he scoffs, shaking his head and continuing "Even I can see you’re not doing anything... I think you’re taking your 'not caring' advice a little too literally.”

“Summer was never a girl that was going to fall for the 'not caring' trick” I scoff lightly, shaking my head as I look down at the fake plant in front of me. I hit the leaves and sigh to myself, not wanting to admit to this little twerp that what I’ve been doing for months is trying to figure out if I even have a shot with Summer… which no matter how much I want to look into how she is acting more friendly towards me, I keep coming back to the same conclusion– I don’t stand a chance in hell with her.

Dustin snorts, completely oblivious to my turmoil “Yeah well what’s your trick going to be for getting Summer then?”

“There are no tricks, man,” I breathe out helplessly, shaking my head as I continue “Besides I already told you she is different– you don’t get a girl like Summer, you’re winning the state championship lucky if she decides you’re worth her time. She’s–”

“Perfect” Dustin interjects and I nod, looking over at him “Yeah exactly– Sum is perfect.”

Dustin sighs, looking at me quickly before resuming his binocular lookout “She’s also perfect for you.”

“Maybe,” I mutter quietly, shaking my head once as to not get my hopes up as I drum my fingers against the top of the planter “But that fact goes out the window when you think about how I’m not perfect for her”

“Steve, stop selling yourself short” Dustin tells me and I look over at him “No I’m serious, I’m not– she deserves someone better than who I was and how I treated her for years”

“You’re not that person anymore” Dustin says and I draw my brows together while I question genuinely “How exactly do you figure that?”

Dustin drops the binoculars down once more and connects his serious eyes with mine to make sure I hear him when he says “Because Summer wouldn’t be friends with you if you were.”

I’m silent with that, really wanting to punch him in the shoulder for attempting to get my hopes up with everything he’s saying right now. While I appreciate it, he’s not any closer to knowing what’s going on in her head than I am.

“Pretty sure all she will ever see me as is a friend” I grumble pathetically and Dustin rolls his eyes “You never know until you ask her– like with me and Suzie.”

“Oh, Suzie” I state, widening my eyes a little while I humor him “Yeah, you mean, hotter than Phoebe Cates– yeah, that Suzie. And, uh, let's think about how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh, yeah. With my advice. Because that's how this works, Henderson. I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, all right, pea brain?”

Dustin snorts, not even bothering to look at me as he counters back quickly “Deflecting is a nice touch to let me know that you know I’m right.”

Dammit, Henderson.

I scoff and roll my eyes, looking away from him so he can’t see that I do in fact know he is right– I do just need to bring it up to her.

Worst thing she can tell me is she won’t ever see me as anything else other than the same shallow douche she went to school with– which she has told me before so it wouldn’t be anything I haven’t heard before.

Only difference now being I actually like her so her shooting me down will actually hurt.

“How am I supposed to just bring that up to her though?” I ask and I can hear the smile in his words “Summer is like the easiest person to talk to–”

“Yes I’m aware…" I deadpan towards him, sarcastically laughing once "But, you know, baring my feelings to her is understandably going to be a little more nerve wracking than how’s your trauma from fighting monster slug babies going?”

“Steve, come on” Dustin says a little louder than before and he looks at me, raising his brows at me like I’m ridiculous for being this worried and I jerk my head back in my bewilderment.

Dustin just rolls his eyes and continues “You are so worried and nervous that she’s going to turn you down but have you even stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, she feels the same way about you?”

I make a face, shaking my head once as I fire back “Umm no” and he just sighs loudly through his frustration “Jesus Harrington, you already got her to somehow agree to be your friend and to work with you– I think getting her to agree to date you wouldn’t be too far of a stretch.”

I think about that for a few seconds, ultimately landing on he’s crazy and I let him know just that “Yeah and I think that you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think I’m the only one who knows anything at this point– you two are idiots” Dustin remarks and I hit his shoulder lightly “Hey, don’t call her an idiot.”

Dustin just rolls his eyes and lifts up the binoculars again, sarcastically laughing at me “Oh my god just tell her you love her already or I will do it for you.”

I drop my mouth open in shock, glaring at the side of his head and silently cursing the little jackass.

It’s only a few minutes later though when thoughts of feelings and Summer get the pause button when Dustin is saying “Target acquired” and I look up in the direction he’s looking “Where?”

“Ten o' clock” Dustin says, continuing with “Sam Goody's” as I reach for the binoculars and say “Give me that.”

I look through the binoculars and find Sam Goody’s, my eyes widening behind the lenses when I see a not smiling, tall, long blond haired guy wearing sunglasses and carrying something over the back of his shoulder.

“Shit” I breathe out, noticing what exactly is in his hand and announcing “Duffel bag.”

I drop the binoculars down and look at Dustin, both of us muttering at the same time “Evil Russian.”

The long blond haired evil Russian heads up the escalator towards the top floor, so Dustin and I quickly follow after him, choosing to instead run up the escalator once he’s stepped off of it.

We head to the right and follow behind him, and while I’m trying not to lose him by walking quickly Dustin is countering that plan as he says “Slow down.”

“We're losin' him” I reply, trying to keep an eye on him through the crowd in between us and Dustin argues “You're getting too close.”

Someone bumps their shoulder into mine, exclaiming loudly back at me “Watch it, dickwad” and I notice how the guy we’re following stops walking.

When he starts to look over his shoulder Dustin and I quickly step off to the side and I turn in a circle before I come to a stop and look through a store's front display window. Dustin grabs the payphone off of the receiver and talks into it in the most monotone voice “Hello. Yes. I am fine. How are you?”

I look through the leaves of the fake tree that's in between us and notice the guy turn back around and start walking forwards again.

I step towards Dustin and tap his shoulder to get him to walk with me again and he reaches over to hang up the phone.

We follow the guy until he makes a move to walk around to the walkway on the other side from where we are so we hide behind a pillar and keep watching which direction he’s going to be heading in.

He however doesn't keep going along the walkway and instead walks through the front doorway into a Jazzercise store front with a bunch of women inside who are stretching on workout mats.

As soon as he’s half way inside he starts yelling “All right, everyone, listen up!” he sets his duffle bag on the counter and unzips it “I just have one question for you. Who… is ready to sweat?”

He finishes his question by lifting out a boombox from the duffle bag and all the women inside the room stand up and face him, cheering and clapping with their excitement as an answer.

“What the–” I trail off as the notes of Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go start to play in the room and he takes off his jacket “That's right! Okay! Let's start it nice and easy now.”

He finishes taking off his jacket and reveals a workout outfit as he starts to move his hips, saying instructions to the group in front of him “Let's move our thighs. Yeah!”

I frown as we continue to watch him begin this jazzercise class before I tap Dustin on the shoulder and nod my head back towards the direction of Scoops “Let’s head back, yeah?”

“Yeah” Dustin sighs and we turn around, walking back the way we just came from.

⋇・.・゜゜・.・゜゜・.・゜゜・.・゜゜・.・⋇

SUMMER POV

Once the rush of the afternoon dies down, Robin hops up to sit on the back counter and opens the window into the back where I’m pacing back and forth with the headphones around my neck and my arms crossed over my chest.

Robin makes a noise to gain my attention while she leans over to hit her hand on the counter that’s on my side of the window “Come on, sit down and we can go over this again.”

I look over at her and she just smiles a little more, tapping the counter twice more and I huff through my frustration “There’s nothing else to translate though it just repeats.”

“I know” she hits the counter again “Come on– up, up”

I drop my arms down to my sides and walk over to the counter, hopping up and spinning around to face her. I cross my legs in front of me and set my elbows on my knees, clasping my hands in front of me.

She makes a noise and grabs the notepad with our translation on it and she reads it slowly "The week is long… the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west… a trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly."

“Tread lightly?” she repeats and grabs the translation dictionary to flip through the pages again.

“You gotta be quiet?” I offer oh so helpfully and Robin throws me a look, trying not to laugh as she turns another page. I make a half laugh noise and huff, keeping my elbows on my knees while I set my hands on the sides of my face “I have no idea but my brain hurts, none of this is making any more sense today than it wasn’t last night”

“I know” she agrees, breathing out a sigh before she lifts up her soda cup and takes a sip.

There’s a knock on the back door from the service hallways and I sit up straight, saying “I got it” before I spin back around and hop off the counter. I walk over to the door and open it, seeing a delivery guy with a dolly. He smiles an exhausted smile and holds the clipboard out for me to sign the delivery sheet “Delivery for you.”

“Thank you” I reply and as I’m handing the clipboard back to him I notice the name on his uniform shirt and my eyes travel up to his hat which says the same thing– no fucking way.

A lynx is definitely a type of cat… and 'feeds'... what if that's code for delivers?

He sets the box onto the floor by my feet and grabs the clipboard from me “Have a nice day”

“Yeah you too,” I reply absentmindedly and he starts to walk away back down the hallway.

“Summer?” Robin calls from behind me and I quickly look back at her and see her lift her shoulders up with her question “What’s wrong?”

I make a noise and quickly step out through the door, looking down the hallway and seeing the the silver cat head logo on the back of his uniform. I widen my eyes a little as I mutter “The silver cat feeds”

“What?” Robin calls from the other side of the window and I look over at her, closing the door and repeating a little louder “The fucking silver cat feeds!”

She jerks her head back, furrowing her brows in her confusion while I quickly run towards the door that leads into the parlor.

“Summer, wait” Robin calls and swings her legs around from how she was also facing the window. She hops down and follows after me just as I’m passing by Dustin and Steve as they walk into Scoops “Yo Sum, you’re not gonna believe who Dustin thought was a Russian” Steve says to me, quickly followed by Dustin saying “You did too” however over Steve’s response of “No I did not” I just wave my hand at them as I run past and say “SIlver cat– I found the silver cat”

“Wait, you found what?” they call out behind me as I run into the mall and head for the center seating area that’s surrounded by the food restaurants. There’s a bunch of fake trees and bushes right in the center with benches surrounding them in a circle and I run right for an empty bench, hopping up onto it while I look around at all the different stores. If silver cat is a delivery person then these other stores have to be the other clues, specifically where they’re delivering and possibly when.

"A trip to China sounds nice" I mutter quietly, quickly looking around and repeating “A trip to China sounds nice– a trip to China– sounds nice… a trip to China” I stop when I find the Imperial Panda cuisine restaurant and half laugh to myself as I lift my hand up with my words “A trip to China sounds nice.”

"Okay, if you tread lightly" I move on to the next clue, moving my eyes along the stores down here and also what I can see on the second level “If you tread…,” I swing around, looking at all the stores surrounding the food court area and stop when I see the Kaufman Shoe store on the second floor above me and I smile, repeating “If you tread lightly”

"When…” I frown, quickly looking up at what stores could be blue or yellow “When blue and yellow meet in the west" I spin in a circle, my eyes landing on a massive clock and I smile when I notice the hands are the exact colors I need “When blue meets yellow… in the west–” I laugh once, whispering “Eight forty five.”

“Sum” I hear Steve call my name as he, Robin and Dustin stop in front of me and I look down at them, watching as Steve lifts his arms out to his sides “What are you doing?”

“I cracked it” I state proudly, smiling even wider and Steve just furrows his brows “You cracked what exactly?”

Robin smiles and points at me “Holy shit, super genius here cracked the code”

Steve and Dustin widen their eyes and look from her and back at me, Dustin asking “The super secret spy code?” While Steve says “Seriously? What is it?”

“Come on” I say and smile, hopping down off the bench and the four of us head back into Scoops.

“So?” Steve asks when we walk into the back of the store and I fill them in on what I found “I think the evil russians are having something delivered here to the mall using the Lynx delivery service whose logo is a silver cat and they’re using the Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes as a cover for their deliveries.”

“What about blue meets yellow in the west?” Dustin asks and I smile, lifting my brows up once with my final riddle solving words “The hands on the clock are blue and yellow so it’s a specific time for this delivery… eight forty five.”

“Holy shit” Steve mumbles and Dustin laughs through his excitement “That's definitely a super secret spy plan– so what do we do?”

“I think” I say, shrugging my shoulders while I look between them all and continue “In just over six hours we should head up to the roof opposite the loading dock where the deliveries come in and see what exactly gets delivered and where exactly it gets delivered to.”

The three of them offer nods of agreement, smiling in our nervous excitement as Robin laughs once "I can't believe we were right."

“What are we supposed to do until then?” Dustin half whines and I set my hands on my hips, smiling “We need to figure out how to get to the roof and not be seen by whoever is getting these deliveries."

Robin and Dustin stay at Scoops while Steve and I follow the evacuation route in the hallway that will lead us outside. Though before we get to the hallway that leads out the back exit we turn to the right and find another door with a stairs access sign on it. We open it and find a stairwell with a sign on the far wall saying roof access, I smile and point over towards it “That looks promising.”

Steve raises his brows once and holds open the door for me “After you, m'lady.”

I chuckle and walk past him and he makes sure the door isn’t going to lock on us. We close it softly to where it doesn’t latch just in case and we head up to the stairs towards the roof.

We open the door we find at the top of the stairs and prop it open with a rock we find off to the side, figuring that’s probably what it’s been used for, before we step out onto the roof.

I slowly move towards the ledge to our left, seeing the coast is clear from anyone standing around and I try to figure out where we are. Steve shares a look with me and we slowly walk across the roof to the far side of the ledge and down below we see a delivery truck leaving from the loading dock area “This has to be it, right?” Steve asks and I nod “It’s gotta be.”

I look up at him and see him smile when I do, asking me “So we’re really going to do this?”

I shrug and look back at the ledge, pointing at it as I crouch down behind it “This is high enough that we shouldn’t be seen by anyone standing down there–” I look up at him and he nods in agreement while he crouches down beside me and I continue with a little shrug “Very low risk and we’ll just be observing if my code cracking was right.”

Steve chuckles, nodding as he rests his arms on his knees and looks around “Yeah, definitely shouldn’t find ourselves in our usual risky monster situations with this stake out.”

He smiles and stands up with that, holding his hand out for me. I smile softly and set my hand in his, feeling him wrap his fingers around mine so he can pull me up.

With my hand still in his, I feel a raindrop on my arm and another one before I quickly look up at the dark cloudy sky above us “Well rain will definitely make the stake out interesting.”

Steve chuckles and in the next instant the clouds open up and it starts pouring down on us. “Oh!” Steve flinches back and increases his hold on my hand while we run back to the door, laughing as I lift my free hand up to push my wet hair out of my face.

Steve does the same with his hair, looking from the pouring rain belting down onto the roof in front of us and down at me. I watch as the water drops slowly roll down his face and off his eyelashes, the smell of the rain surrounding us and I smile brightly “The smell of rain on the pavement is one of my favorite things about a summer rainstorm”

Steve smiles, nodding his head slowly as he moves his eyes between mine “Mine too, nothing really quite like it.”

Silently he reaches up and moves his fingers along the side of my head near my temple, moving some of my hair that apparently was stuck to my skin and I shiver– mentally telling myself it has everything to do with the rain seeping into my clothes and absolutely nothing to do with him touching me.

I feel his hand squeeze around mine again and it seems to make us both startle since we realize at the same time he’s been holding my hand this whole time. He nervously clears his throat and lets go, reaching up to scratch the side of his temple as he mumbles a quiet “Sorry, I uh–”

I smile, shaking my head like it’s not a big deal and Steve lifts his arm to point over his shoulder to indicate the stairwell “We should, uh, head back and let them know what we found.”

“Yeah” I breathe out “Yeah, let’s go” I nod and hold onto the door handle for support while I move the rock out of the way with my foot.

When we get back to the hallway for Scoops we knock on the back door and Dustin opens the door for us, jerking his head back when he looks at us and our drenched state and smiling wide “What happened to you two?”

“It’s raining, Dustpan” I remark like it’s obvious and he nods slowly “So just got caught out in a rainstorm on the roof… that’s–”

“Wet” Steve interjects, nodding his head once and raising his brows towards him “We’re wet, Henderson now can you move so we can grab some of the towels.”

Dustin moves aside, sharing a knowing look with Steve that I throw a curious look at and when he notices he clears his throat and his face from any previous humor he had.

I look over at Steve and he smiles softly, holding out one of the clean cleaning towels for me and I wipe off my arms and face while he does the same.

Since Dustin doesn’t have a jacket, and he refused to use one of ours, we improvise and spend the rest of the time fashioning out a rain cover for him as best we can with some trash bags and duct tape.

Just before eight thirty we head through the service hallways, up the stairs and out onto the roof that Steve and I found will give us the best vantage point of the delivery dock area.

Once we make sure our roof is clear, and Dustin checks the surrounding roofs are clear from any other lookouts with his binoculars, we step out into the rain. The rain is coming down in sheets, followed by the occasional lightning strike and thunderclap while we crouch down behind the ledge and wait for this delivery to happen or not.

The four of us peer over the ledge just enough for our elbows to rest on top of it and we keep our heads low while we watch the back doors.

“How sure are we that this delivery happens every night?” Robin asks what we’re probably all thinking and I shrug, offering lightheartedly “About fifty percent.”

“Hating those odds, Byers” Steve grumbles and I smile over at him “If it’s not tonight, Harrington, then we can always meet out here tomorrow and see...”

Steve throws a sarcastic thumbs up my way before he squeezes his eyes shut from the rain getting in his eyes.

I set my hands on the ledge and mumbling honestly "And there's also the chance I didn't actually crack this code correctly."

"No, you did–" Steve says, smiling reassuringly at me when I look over at him and he nods "It makes too much sense for you to be wrong, Sum."

Sure enough at fifteen to nine a delivery truck pulls around the back of the mall and starts to back in towards the loading dock area where two guys are standing armed with guns.

“Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes” I remind Dustin who has his binoculars and is looking at the two guards and the delivery truck.

A guy in a yellow jacket walks out from behind the truck with a red dolly carrying a stack of three boxes and Dustin confirms “Those stores boxes are with that whistling guy, ten o'clock.”

“What do you think's in there?” Steve asks and Dustin answers without missing a beat “Guns, bombs?”

“Chemical weapons?” I shrug and Steve looks over at me, wiping his face with his hand to get the rain out of his eyes.

“Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth” Dustin continues and Steve once again wipes his fingers over his eyes to clear the water from them “Great,” he nods once, repeating “That's great.”

We see one of the guards sling his gun back behind his shoulder as he walks over to the side panel next to the two big gray doors and he taps the panel. I see a green light shine before the doors open and the guy in the yellow rain jacket with a silver cat logo on the back puts his foot on the back of the dolly. He pulls the dolly back towards him and walks towards the doors that just opened up.

“Hey, what's in there?” Robin asks and Dustin answers “It's just more boxes.”

Steve reaches over and tries to grab the binoculars “Let me check it out.”

“No, I'm still looking,” Dustin argues and Steve continues to try and grab the binoculars from him “Lemme see it.”

“Hang on!” Dustin says at the same time a loud thud rings out as the binoculars slip from their grip and hit the side of the roof ledge we’re looking over.

Both of the guards hear the ominous thud sound and we gasp, Dustin ordering “Duck!”

I move quickly to drop down below the ledge and turn around to lay back against it as flat as I can. Robin twists out of sight on one side of me while Steve does the same on my other side and Dustin flips around on Steve’s other side.

At the thought of us being seen adrenaline starts coursing through my body and my breathing starts coming out in quick, nervous pants. Everything from the echo of the binocular thud to the guards reacting to us ducking out of sight all happens so fast that I don’t even register that Steve grabbed my hand in the middle of all of that. His fingers are linked in between mine, gripping tightly while he holds up our hands in between us. Slowly I look from our hands and over towards him, watching as he does the same and looks at me. He doesn’t let go of my hand, just keeps hold of me as he silently tries to reassure me that we’re going to be okay and I squeeze his hand back.

I can just make out through the pouring rain something being shouted in what I’m betting money on is Russian and I slightly widen my eyes at Steve. He nods like he’s coming to the same conclusion that they’re probably going to search up here and we move to get up, telling Dustin and Robin “Come on, hurry”

Steve keeps a hold of my hand while we quickly run across the roof to the door, only letting go once he opens the door and ushers us all inside. We’re rushing down the stairs and taking the first door we come to that will lead us back into our service hallway before I know it and I breathe out a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves with how close that all was.

We quickly make our way down the hallway, our wet shoes squeaking on the floor as we walk around corners mixing with our panting breaths, and Robin looks between us, smiling nervously “Well, I think we found your Russians.”

|| << PREV || MASTERLIST || NEXT >> ||

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Please do not copy and paste my writing anywhere without my consent. This work is property of @stiles-o-dylan24 on here and wattpad and stilesodylan24 on AO3. Stranger Things and its characters aren’t mine, however, Summer and this fanfcition is. These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of these works may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.

Posted: 18 Aug 2023

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nikolliver · 3 months

Text

"I want to talk with my papa."

A one shot of my Geppetto AU.

Sun really wants to know more about Karma's family.

Giggles echoing through the dark stage. The nightlights from the paper structures make the surroundings barely visible, yet visible enough for you to not trip over.

The kid hops like a rabbit hiding behind a cutout of a tower. Red lights were following their steps passing by the cutout, leaving the sound of bells ringing behind.

Silence.

The child covers their mouth unsuccessfully holding their giggles at the sound of metal clicks. The sounds go up. They hesitate for a second, but gives themselves to temptation and peeks from the cutout. Their sight only founds a dark empty crowd of chairs and tables.

Bells ring right above their head among with low giggles.

Before the kid could react, large metal hands wrap their torso lifting up their body up to the air taking their feet out of the ground.

"HOY- HEEEY!!" The kid squeaks as they are being trapped in the arms of the blue giggling metal jester. The hold is firm, not too tight, tight enough to give a sense of security for the kid pressed against its chest.

"Moon! The hook is cheating!!" The kid hisses. Moon answers the child's complain with more giggles.

They both swing in the air, Moon holds the child carefully with a hand wrapped around their whole torso as he "swims" in the air with his other arm. They slowly land to the wooden like floor of the stage.

The kid is safely left to their feet on the ground. The hook leaves from Moon's back and disappears in the darkness above them.

The red lights from Moon's eyes illuminate the child from head to foot. Even crouched, Moon still towers over the small kid. It crouches even more onto the kid's eye level.

"Bad hider Karma." Moon giggles at Karma among the spins of his faceplate clicking.

Karma pouts and puffs up their chest at the Moon's jest. "I want rematch!!" The child barks as they poke Moon's faceplate.

Karma is granted with silence and stillness from Moon as reaction.

The red lights transition from red to light blue. Moon tilts his head to the sides, which Karma just mimics.

Moon fakes a sigh from his voice box.

"Another day." He mumbles as he stood at his feet, his arms limp as he leans a bit on his back. "Geppetto is finishing talking with your Nana."

As Moon speaks, the lights of the stage slowly turn through dim lights to bright. Karma looks up to the spotlights above and up to Moon.

Moon's color scheme transitioning to warmer colors. The starts from his pants changing to yellow and red stripes, his faceplate spins as he hat hides from his head. Sun beams growing at his head.

"Your grandma will take you to that family party, don't you remember?" Sun leans down to Karma with hands on his hips. "You have been chirping about it for WEEKS to us and how excited you were to see your cousins again!" His beams jump with his words and he spins his faceplate.

"Ah yeah... I almost forgot." Karma follows Sun walking to the edge of the stage, he steps down from it like a stair step due to his towering height.

Sun spins his torso as he blocks Karma from walking forward with his hands. He offers his hands to Karma so he could pick them up if they wished. Karma raises their arms in a T-pose and Sun carefully wraps his large hands around Karma's waist, lifting them from the stage and gently brings Karma to the ground.

"Speaking of "family"..." Sun ponders for a moment. He spins on his toes like a ballerina to a near blue playmat and graciously sits down crossing his legs. "Why don't you tell me more about your family? We still have some minutes!" Sun rests his elbows on his legs and his chin on his hands, tilting his head to the side while his blue painted eyes lock right into Karma.

"But... But why?" Karma raises an eyebrow.

Sun freezes for a mere second. "Well... We've been friends for soooo looooong and we never had the chance to get to know each other better besides our little games after our performances." Sun whimpers, bringing his hand above his forehead as he leans back like the drama queen he is. He peeks through his hand to look at a little confused Karma. "We talk about how our life is here at the theater and the pizzaplex, so is only fair for you to share a little bit of your life too..." Sun walks his fingers through the playmat, spinning his faceplate. "... Unless you don't want to share it, which is totally alright." His faceplate stops upside down to Karma.

The kid blinks as the yellow jester taps the playmat in front of him. "...okay." Karma shrugs as they walk towards the playmat and sits in front of Sun.

"First things first!" Sun announced joyfully as he spins his head. He mimics to open a notebook, adjusting his imaginary glasses with a pen (or pencil). "Let's start simple, who do you live with?" He questions as he bounces to the sides.

"Uhhm... My Nana and my dad." Karma responds while reaching the tips of their toes. "I had a fish, but it died last year." They added.

"Rest in fish..." Sun fakes a note. Karma holds a snicker at Sun's joke. "Do you enjoy living with them?" He leans over to the child.

"Yeah, I do." Karma holds their feet. "My nana is very nice, she makes my hair the way I like, her food is good and she takes me to cool places! Like the Pizzaplex!" They swing back and forth holding their feet.

Sun nods as he brings a finger behind Karma's head, gently pushing their head forwards. The child lets go from their feet.

"Yes, we are very aware that your grandma is a gentle and kind woman." Sun replied. "You and Geppetto say LOTS about her! Although... How about your father?" He leans over to Karma's eye level. "You mention him but never says a word about him."

Karma pauses staring at Sun. They bring their feet together as they sit straight. A poker face marked on their expression.

The tall bouncing metal jester patiently observed the kid's movements as his fingers drum onto the playmat.

"Does he treat you well?" Sun cuts the short silence as he freezes his bounces with a click, making Karma lean back a bit. His sunny mood changed to serious mood pretty quick.

"...yes." Karma replies. A tone matching with their neutral expression.

Sun analyzed Karma up and down with his eyes for a moment.

There's nothing more threatening than seeing the energetic and hopping stagebot being so still and lack of movement like this.

Sun remains silent for one more second... And leans back to sit straight.

"... You don't seem to have much positive comments about your father." Sun acknowledged as he glances down to Karma.

Karma brings their knees to their chest. "My dad is not a "bad dad", is just..." They pause. "I don't hang around with him that much." The child replies staring to the side.

Sun leans to their eye sight. "He's an absent parent you say?" He questions.

"What's abisen?" Karma tilts their head as Sun's rays shrinks.

"It's "absent"" Sun corrects. "And, absent is... Someone who is not present or that doesn't show up around that much..." He ponders with his fingers, his beams going in and out. "Like when a student doesn't show up for class, they are absent."

"Oh." Karma stared at Sun. "Yeah my dad is ab... Absent. Did I got it?"

"Yes you got it." He remarks. "So... You don't interact with your father often then?" Sun interrogates.

"Yeah he is mostly at work. So he isn't home so much and when he is at home, he's always at the phone talking with people from the job..." Karma mumbled digging the playmat with their finger.

Sun hums at Karma's words. He reaches a hand behind one of Karma's afro puffs and pulls out a bunch of cards.

"And when he's not working?" Sun cuts Karma's surprise with the sudden magic trick, he shuffles the cards in his hands waiting for the kid to answer.

"Ah...." Karma shakes off from the surprise, it's not the first time they had done a magic trick like that. "He... He is serious." They reflect on their thoughts, cautiously catching the right words to describe their father. "... He doesn't talk too much and doesn't play with me."

"Hm... He sounds pretty boring to me." Sun comments as he starts building a card castle. "What about his care towards you?"

"He asks how my day was, but never knows how answer back." Karma grunts. "He talks better with the phone than he does with me." The child crosses their arms. "He keeps insisting to cut my hair even tho I said MANY times that I like my hair like this! It's thanks to my Nana that my hair is still like this." They pat one of their afro puffs.

"That's quite concerning." Sun admires his small castle with clenched hands. "Sounds like he just doesn't know how to communicate with children." Karma slides back from the castle so it doesn't fall. "We could give him some lessons on that matter, I might say we are pretty good at it." Sun taunts. "Atleastbetterthanhimofcourse." He fakes to clear his throat. "And how does he behave with your grandma?"

"...He treats her nicely." The child replies after a pause. "I mean, my Nana is his mama after all. I guess is not a surprise that he treats her well." Karma shrugs.

"That's good to hear." Sun spins his beams. "It would be veeeery bad if a kind and sweet woman like your grandma gets treated badly at her own house..." He crosses his arms, tapping his fingers on his arm.

"They both talk okay. And they don't seem to hate each other." Karma adds. "They don't argue around me, just when she wants to take me to see Mr. Geppetto and you guys here..."

"Now I noticed the lack of mentions of a mother." Sun's eyes lock on Karma's. "... Do you have one?"

Karma zones out for a second.

"... I have." They reply. "My mom and my dad are divorced."

"Oh..." Sun's beams lowered.

"I talk to her through video calls." The child shakes their leg. "She's so different from my dad... I kind of get it why they are not together anymore..."

Sun taps his finger on his leg. "How different?" He tilts his head.

"Like..." Karma gestures with their arms to their sides. "My dad is always thinking about work stuff and doesn't care about having fun. My mom totally supports these things of self 'exepression' and tells me very cool stuff." The child stretches their legs on the playmat. "Kind of like you guys and Geppetto here at the theater." Karma eyes at Sun.

""Expression"." Sun corrects. He holds his chin while spinning his rays. Long seconds of silence. "Y'know... You say that he's not a "bad dad", but these things seem pretty bad to me." Sun tilts to the side.

"I..." Karma stutters. "But... He doesn't hit me and stuff." The child explains.

"Being a bad dad is more than physical violence." Sun toneless answers the unquiet kid. "He trying to keep you in standards that you are not comfortable for you might cause bad results in your future." He taps a card away from the castle, causing it to fall into pieces. "Even I, an ordinary theater animatronic, can recognize a bad parent that I don't even know personally."

Karma gazes at the cards on the playmat. "But I don't even know him that much!" Karma belts. "I mean, I don't hate him. But I don't like him too." The child flench their hands in the air. "I don't know what to think about him..."

"It is admirable your wish to try to understand the other side of the story, sunshine." Sun cuts Karma's speech. "But still, I feel like you shouldn't count that much in this wish." A serious tone from his voice box. "I don't want you to get hurt."

A visible frown at Karma's face.

They hate when Sun starts being like that.

"... You are doing that again, Sun." Karma mutters.

"I only said this because I'm worried about you, unlike your father." Sun clicks.

Karma's eyes shoot wide to Sun's words. Speechless, the child just stares at the jester.

"Please don't look at me like..." Sun interrupts himself. "...what?" Now he wasn't talking to Karma. He turns his head a 180 from Karma. "But I just- ..." A sigh sound from his voice box. ".... alright." Sun turns back to Karma. "... Sorry about that." He apologizes.

The lights of the theater start going dim.

Sun's colors transition to purple-ish colors. The stars from Moon's pants start merging with Sun's stripes. Their head spins as the hat appears on their head, now purple with the same yellow stars. The crescent on their face turns orange as the other side gets dark.

"Hello Karma." Eclipse spoke.

"Hi Eclipse." Karma replied, calmer at Eclipse's presence.

Eclipse starts taking the cards from the playmat. Karma helps.

"I'm sorry for what Sun said." Eclipse softly mumbled. "He will give you a proper apology soon, is that we don't have much time right now." Eclipse mumbles with the dialogue that happened.

Karma gives the cards that the collected to Eclipse. "But what if he's right?" The child questions. "...about my father?"

Eclipse glances down at Karma in silence.

"...bad parents must be punished." Moon snitches through the voice box as Eclipse's rays shrunk at the opposite side of the crescent.

They hold the side of their head. "Moon!" Eclipse calls out the blue counter part. They sigh. "There's something to be clear..." Eclipse turns to Karma. "We are theater bots... Our knowledge about everything we know is mostly based on the tales that we perform. We don't fully understand how this parenting thing works, so don't take our words like the definitive truth for this matter..." They offer a hand to Karma.

Karma ponders for a second and grabs Eclipse's finger. "I just wanted to talk to people better..." They mumble.

Eclipse pauses for a brief moment. "What's your father's job?" They tilt their head.

Karma starts playing with Eclipse's hand joints. "He works with ad... Advocacy..." Karma slowly corrects themselves.

Eclipse hums acknowledge. "And your mother?"

"She's an art teacher." Karma presses their hand against Eclipse's palm.

The difference between Karma's hand and Eclipse's is marvelous, a small child and a lanky humanoid animatronic that can hold them like a literal doll.

Oh for moments like this to be eternal, but they wouldn't. Karma will grow up and there's nothing they could do about it, just watch and hope the best for Karma's future.

"Eclipse?" The worry in the soft voice of the child snaps the animatronic from its thoughts. "Are you guys okay?"

"Ah- yes I am." Eclipse pokes Karma's bow on their head. "So... An art teacher." Eclipse clasps their hands together.

Karma rests their back on Eclipse's hand. The size of this child doesn't match its fragility but they couldn't accept it yet. Wait, focus now.

"Indeed, your parents are different from each other." Eclipse comments. "Your father works for a more serious area. An attorney?"

"Yes! He's an attorney!" Karma joyfully jumps.

Eclipse gently taps one of Karma's afro puffs. "Working as an attorney is really complicated." They pondered. "Attorneys defend people, but they also have to defend bad people!"

Karma gasps. "They do?!"

"Yes! Such a fact, isn't it?" The bell on their hat jingles as they tilt their head. "Adults have lots of problems to face. Something to keep in mind."

Karma remains thoughtful for a moment... They try to climb Eclipse's arm, but is gently picked on their arms as they stand up on their feet. Carefully caring the small giggling child in their arms like a baby.

"Starlight." Eclipse calls. "You are a very dear friend to us and we are thankful for being your friends." They carefully lift Karma up to its eye level.

"I like being friends with you guys too!" Karma giggles.

A soft chuckle from Eclipse's voice box. "You are a wonderful child, sunshine. Remember that you have nice people in your family that you can count to help you and that you can talk to." They press their thumb against Karma's cheek, who grabs it like a joystick.

"Like Nana!" Karma chuckles.

"Yes! Just like her!" Eclipse gently spins their torso with Karma in hands. "Speaking of the angel..."

Steps approaching from the other side of the stage. Two elders talking notice the animatronic with the child.

"Karma, it's time to go!" The old lady gently calls out.

"Nana!" Karma wiggles their feet.

Eclipse gently places Karma to the ground. The child rushes towards their grandma.

The old man next to them laughs as the child hugs their grandma. "Have fun at the party you two!"

Nana hands over a backpack for Karma. "Are you sure you don't want to come along, José?" She offers.

José shakes off a hand. "Unfortunately I have been called to assist the show of the Glamrocks tonight." He explains.

"The makeup and figurines are organized and perfectly set for tonight Mr. Geppetto!" Eclipse spins towards the humans of the place.

"Thanks Eclipse..." Geppetto scratches his neck, forcing a chuckle.

"Bye Geppetto!" Karma waves at Geppetto. "Bye Eclipse, Sun and Moon!" The child takes their grandma's hand as they walk off the theater.

"Goodbye!" The lady waves at the man and his animatronic.

Geppetto and Eclipse waves back at them.

"Ready for tonight?" Geppetto asks Eclipse. "This is going to be a though night." He plays with his suspenders.

Eclipse clicks. "We are ready for everything!"

The hook goes down to the animatronic's back and Eclipse swings to the other side of the stage.

#niko niko writes #the daycare attendant #fnaf dca #fnaf sun #sundrop #moondrop #daycare attendant #fnaf moon #niko niko noises #eclipse fnaf #fnaf eclipse #dca au #geppetto au #fnaf daycare attendant #fnaf daycare au

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bobastar · 1 year

Text

Teenager In Love

JJ Maybanks X fem!reader

a/n: one of my favorite trope is book smart gf and street smart bf// Not Edited, I made some things up because I’m too lazy to look back + I liked this idea i had :p (theres two different songs to fit the mood) not edited/proofread

You were sitting in the library peering down at your notes as you heard the little bell ring. JJ walked over to you and sat next to you huffing quietly. You looked over at him and smiled a little.

“Hi,” you whispered as he slopped down on his chair and rested his head on your arm.

“Hey” You could tell he was upset about something. Kissing the top of his head and putting your arm around his shoulder to play with his hair, you softly hummed.

He smiled slightly as he looked up. “Everything okay?” you asked as he nodded.

“Just fine, whatcha doin?” he leaned up and kissed the corner of your mouth.

“Studying..” you rolled your eyes knowing he was gonna laugh quietly at you. “Shut up, its for Pope.”

“Yeah yeah, you just looked cute while saying that,” he smiled. “Are you finished?”

“Hmm..almost, why?”

“I wanna take you somewhere, but you can finish.”

You nodded and pecked his lips before looking back at your laptop and notes.

JJ sat up and grabbed one of your glitter pens and started to draw on his arm. He fidgeted his fingers and rings, looking over to your laptop occasionally.

“Is it for the gold thingy?” he whispered, leaning his cheek on your shoulder as you nodded.

“Yeah I wanted to know more about it before we went on the ‘mission’.” you used air quotes.

He smiled kissing your shoulder before grabbing your hand to play with your fingers and rings. It was something you were already used to, you never really mind it since you knew that JJ had a problem with sitting still. He brought your hand up to him, giving your palm small quiet kisses. Then he brought it back down and started to draw little doodles on your hand.

As you picked up your noted and closed your laptop, you looked down at your arm seeing the designs JJ made.

“Youre silly,” you laughed at your initials and his surrounded by a messy heart drawn on the top of your hand. He smiled, “you finished?”

“Yeah, lets go.” He got your backpack and got up, watching you as you pushed in your chair. He hung your backpack over his shoulder carefully and let you cling yourself on his arm.

“Where is this mystery place?”

“You know it pretty well,” he smiled, kissing the top of your head.

“Yeah?” he helped you on his bike and handed you your backpack. He hummed in response, getting slightly flustered as you wrapped your arms around his torso, playing with his shirt.

“Ready?,” JJ turned his head back to look at you. You smiled and nodded, “Yeah” you said softly as you rested your cheek on his shoulder.

He smiled and looked forward, driving off to who knows where.

-- later that evening --

It seemed as if the pogues where still caught up in an argument while you were studying, everyone was quiet and had a frown on their face. JJ sighed and sat down on a chair pulling you down by your waist gently, setting you down on his lap.

As the group talked among themselves, JJ kept planting kisses and playing with your shirt. You kept paying attention in case JJ missed some points of the plan.

“Rafe has the cross, I just know it,” Pope was irritated and stressed.

“I overheard that theres a party hes attending while sneaking into the house, maybe he’ll talk to someone about it..” Sarah chimed in.

“Who the hell can sneak into a party?” Kiara rolled her eyes and leaned back onto her chair.

Pope looked around and his eyes landed on you and JJ. “They can, JJ is good at lying and Y/n looks like she could fit into the crowd, she’s good under pressure too.”

“I do lie a lot,” JJ smiled lazily “what time is the part?”

“Today at 7, you have 3 hours to get ready.”

“Sounds good.”

Your blue velvet dress swayed in the wind as JJ drove quickly to the party location. As you arrived you took off your helmet carefully and fixed your dress, JJ helping you off.

“Ready?”

“Of course,” you smiled back.

JJ fixed his vest, sighing. “I’ll meet you back here, ‘kay?” He pecked your lips and tugged you closer. “The dress seems easy for me to take off.”

“I made sure it was,” you kissed him quickly, feeling his smile pressed against your lips.

“If they bother you, remember what I taught you,” he smiled. “Hit them right there, and then walk away, just walk away.”

You laughed and nodded.

The dress hugged your body beautifully making some of the Kooks at the party look at you. Luckily it was a mask party so half of your face was masked with a similar color of your dress. Sitting down you scanned the room for JJ, but was surprised when you felt a tap on your shoulder.

“He’s by the bar, m’lady,” you could hear the smirk under the mask as he handed you a drink. You took the drink and nodded, getting up. As you were walking, you heard JJ whistle and giggle under his mask as he walked in the opposite direction.

You sat down at the bar just close enough to hear Rafe, sure enough he was bragging about gold and the cash he could make with it. You made sure to look if the video was recording, setting your phone face down on the table. You looked around and saw waiters filling drinks/being trashed talked by ungrateful kids.

Just then Rafe looked over at you, tilting his head.

“Hey, are you new here?,” he smiled sitting next to you. You hardly ever hung out with JJ’s friends so it was possible he didn’t recognize you.

“Not really.”

“You seem new, I would’ve recognized a girl like you,” he sat next to you, moving his head slightly to look at the unmasked part of your face. You shrugged and brought the straw up to your lips taking a sip. You felt a hand creep up to your thigh, rubbing the soft fabric harshly. “I have a boyfriend,” you said sternly.

He looked back at his buddy and scoffed, “so?”. You nodded, but he moved his hand higher. You got the information you needed, so you stopped the video, making sure he didnt see the screen, and put it in your purse. While trying to get up, he pressed his hand tighter on your thigh. As you sighed telling him to stop raising your voice more than the last, a specific waiter turned his head over to the scene.

Rafe seemed embarrassed, almost enraged. How could a mere little girl, one he has never even seen, reject him so quickly? That’s when he held onto the dress pushing you closer to him, a cruel smile plastered all over his face. You reached your hand over the table and splashed the cup full of alcohol over his face, the music stopped as the sound of shattered glass filled the room instead. Before he could attack you, you remembered what JJ said. You kneed him, shocked at your quick action.

“Oops,” you smiled as he let go of you to clean himself up. You walked away from him, being careful to not step on the glass. JJ was watched, his mouth slightly gaped open as you tugged on his shirt to go before Rafe followed. He let himself be dragged by you, still shocked by his badass girlfriend, the same girlfriend who was sweet to everyone, almost never got mad.

You took off your mask and sighed, “lets go.”

“Yes ma’am, right away ma’am,” JJ took of his mask and handed you a helmet. You put on the helmet, and got on the bike wrapping your hands around him.

As Rafe and his friends stomped outside, JJ and you were already gone. Nothing but broken masks and tire marks were on the floor.

#jj mayback imagine #jj maybank #jj x you #obx2 #outer banks #jj mayback x reader #obx #jj obx #random #:) i like them. surf & turf

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levicorpus94 · 1 year

Text

Longing

A/N: Hello, this is my first time posting fanfic. Most of my fanfic end up in my drafts. I hope you enjoy.

Warnings: Some angst ig

Sebastian x f!reader

Note: F!reader will be called “she/her”, I don’t particularly enjoy using “M.C” or “Y/N”

Part 2

————————————————————————

It had been five years since she had graduated from Hogwarts. She was now running a small flower and herb shop near Ottery St. Catchpole. Her shop included flowers, magical plants and also vegetation plants. Her shop was attached to her home. She had a small farm with a greenhouse just behind her house where she grew the plants that she sold in her shop.

She also had a few cows and other non magical animals. She lived a self-sufficient life and she was happy but sometimes, she would feel a little alone. She was thankful for her plants and animals but she also missed her friends.

She would sometimes have Poppy and Imelda visiting her every month or so.

She also kept in touch with Ominis though she hadn't heard from him for over a year. She unexpectedly kept the most in touch with Garreth who lived not too far from her little farm.

But mostly, she yearned to hear from Sebastian who had disappeared into the void after their final days in Hogwarts. She felt a pang of anger whenever she thought of him. Sebastian, the boy she was desperately in love with.

The boy who confessed to her of his undying love. The boy, who promised to be by her side forever. But here she was living by herself. She sometimes smiled when she thought of him, their shenanigans, their late night misadventures, even of the boring classes they sat in.

Everything about him seemed so surreal, he now seemed like a faraway dream. She missed him dearly but she wanted answers from him about his empty promises. Why did he stop? Stop talking to her? Stop writing to her? Stop being her friend?

Sometimes, when her heart ached enough for him, she would lightly shed a tear looking through the things they shared and exchanged with each other when they were younger and optimistic.

A piece of parchment which Sebastian passed her during transfiguration asking her to accompany him to the three broomsticks. A small sneakoscope that he gave her that no longer worked. His old advanced book of potions that they shared with number of scribbles all over.

A red rose now completely dry he gave her the first time they spent valentines day together in their 5th year. Her broken spectacles that he accidentally sat on when they were in their 6th year. A silver opal shaped pendant with a necklace with an emerald stone he gave her for last birthday.

She would sift through these mementos among many other letters, scraps and parchments, Sebastian and her shared. Sometimes, she would smile and reminisce fondly of the best days of her life alongside the best people she met and sometimes, she would break down crying into the early hours of the morning.

Her heart longed for him, sometimes she would try to forget about him but would fail miserably. How could she forget those mischievous but loving eyes, his crooked yet smug smile, and his hair, his messy and soft hair.

She missed holding onto his hair as he would bury himself in her neck or elsewhere. Those thoughts would make her smile and a blush would more often than not creep up on her cheeks.

One fine evening, she was tending her greenhouse, when she heard the bell of her shop ring. It was a slow day and it was almost closing time, she slowly walked back to her shop. There was a pretty young woman looking at some of the pansies.

"Hello, may I help you?" She asked the customer.

"Oh hello, I was just admiring your flowers here. They're beautiful." She said cheerfully. A smile crept up her face.

"Thank you." She smiled.

"I was wondering if you have any dittany seeds?" She asked.

"Oh yes. I keep seeds in the back. I'll just get them for you. How many shall I get you?" She asked as she headed to the back.

"Oh, just 2 packets." She heard her.

"Sebastian, come take a look at these beauties." She heard the customer say. Her heart skipped a beat. But Sebastian was a common name, it must be someone else. She found the seeds and went back to the front to hand them to her.

She was now standing with a man, tall, messy brown hair, his hands in his pockets. She only saw the side of him and she knew it was him. She felt a lump in her throat.

She coughed to announce that she had returned.

"Can we take these pot of pansies too?" She said and the both turned around.

It was Sebastian. Sebastian Sallow, in the flesh. Her eyes couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was him.

"Ofcourse!" She said in a falsely cheery voice trying not to get a glance of Sebastian. "That'll be 15 sickles and 10 knuts." She mumbled looking down at her feet.

"Hi, there!" Sebastian said all of a sudden. It was him in the flesh, he sounded the same as he did in school. His voice, his damned voice, that oozed confidence with a touch of smugness. Damn, she loved to hear his voice.

She ignored him still looking at her feet. She felt she would cry if she even looked at him.

"Oh do you know each other?" The girl asked looking at Sebastian.

"Yes, we went to Hogwarts together." He said calmly.

Went to Hogwarts together. His words stung her, she couldn't believe her ears. She couldn't believe he thought so little of her, a new pang of emotion struck her, the one of anger and confidence.

"Oh yeah! Sallow right? Sebastian Sallow." She said smiling, plastering a fake one quickly.

"She was a pretty good duellist back in the day." He smirked. She knew that smirk, it was the old him, his mischievous yet smug smile, the one that challenged her, the one that riled her up.

"Hah! Still am." She retorted back. The girl beside him looked up at Sebastian and back at her and smiled ear to ear.

"It was good meeting you. Always a pleasure to meet one of Sebastian's friends. We're going to be late Sebastian." She said tugging his arm as she led him out of the shop.

As soon as she heard them dissapparate, she felt tears roll down her cheeks. She stood by the counter as tear fell down on to the counter. She quickly wiped off her tears and proceeded to close her shop for the day.

She went back to her cows and tried to continue with the remainder of her day.

It was late at night and Garreth had come over for dinner. He seemed to be the only friend she had at the moment. She was thankful for his company, the few giggles and laughs they shared, she cherished.

"I am finally getting my potions book published!" He said joyfully.

"Merlin's beard Garreth! That is wonderful." She said pulling him into a hug.

"I cannot believe it." She said pulling away smiling at him.

"To be honest, me neither." He said sheepishly. Garreth had grown quite a bit after Hogwarts and he had kept his long curly hair, that helped him get the ladies, he said.

"To think of our Garreth, the Garreth who blew up every cauldron he touched." She laughed.

"You must blow up a few cauldrons, to finally blow people's minds." He said smugly.

"Not literally... I hope." She laughed.

"Yeah yeah." He played off her words.

"Oh, I'm going to be touring with my book release." He announced.

She felt her heart skip a beat when she heard him tell her of his latest announcement. Her frown unknowingly must've crept up to her face.

"I'll write to you every week." He said quickly grabbing her shoulders looking into her eyes before she could plaster a smile on her face.

"You can write to me whenever you have time Garreth." She assured him smiling back.

"I'm just so happy for you. I cannot wait to see you on the daily prophet." She said smiling.

"I promise I'll keep in touch. I know you miss me." He smirked.

"You wish Weasley." She smiled poking him playfully.

"I've got to get going. I'm leaving early in the morning." He continued.

"You're going tomorrow?" She asked surprised. He nodded.

"Well. Keep in touch Weasley." She said giving him another hug. She almost didn't want to let him go. And maybe he felt it too as he held her as tight as he could.

As they pulled away, a tear had crept out of her eye. He wiped it away with his thumb, but his hand rested on her cheek. The two looked at each other and he leaned ever so slightly forward and she did the same.

There was a loud knock on the door. This startled them.

"Who could that be?" She said looking at the time, it was almost midnight.

"Wait." Garreth told her and went to open the door.

It was "Sallow?" Garreth announced in utter shock.

"What are you doing here?" Garreth asked him.

"I might ask you the same thing Weasley." Sebastian replied, his voice was cold and indifferent when seeing Garreth even after so many years.

"I was just saying goodbye to my dear friend here. I'm leaving tomorrow for my book tour." He said with the same indifference.

"Safe travels Garreth." She said as she went to hug him again. He smiled and kissed the top of her head before he left.

"What's he doing here?" Sebastian asked.

"What are YOU doing here?" She asked back.

"I wanted to see you." He replied.

"Why?" She asked turning away from him.

"Why? Because I wanted to see you!" He said his voice a little louder.

"It's late Sallow. You can visit the shop when it's open but the shop is closed tomorrow. So you may return when it's open." She said turning away from him.

He stood there silent. "I came to visit you not the shop." He began.

"Well, it's much too late for a social visit. If it wasn't for Garreth, I would've been asleep already." She said walking away. Sebastian didn't move from where he was standing. She could feel his gaze following her around the room.

"Can we talk?" He practically begs.

"Depends. What about?" She asks, her back still facing him.

"About us." He begins.

"Get out." She says slamming her fist on the table next to her.

"I'm not doing this Sallow. You leave right this moment." She says as she walks to open the door.

"Since when have you started calling me Sallow?" He asked still not moving from his place.

"You need to go right now." She yanks his arm and directs him outside and immediately slams the door on his face. She slumps down on the floor her back leaning against the wall as tears automatically fall from her cheeks to the floor.

Her heart hurts, she feels like she can't breathe, there is a lump in her throat making it hard for her to swallow. She covers her face with her hands as she sobs into her hands.

"I hate you." She whimpers. Little did she know that Sebastian was still on the other side of the door. He had slumped down to the floor as well. He could hear her crying. He heard her saying she hated him but perhaps not as much as he hated himself. He supported his head with both his hand as his head leaned against the door.

He knew she might never forgive him. He knew that everything he promised her meant nothing. He left her all alone. He knew it would break her yet he did.

But one thing he knew was that he loved her. He loved her ever since their 4th year. The last years were rough for him as well. His downward spiral into learning and doing the dark arts, losing Anne, losing his uncle, it all dawned upon him. So he left, he ran away. He knew he was a coward. But he couldn't live with himself. He was ashamed of himself. He felt like...no, he knew he was a failure.

She had fallen asleep crying to herself on the floor and woke up from the pain on her back. She saw it was still dark outside. She suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to close the skylight of the shop. She opened her door and to her surprise, Sebastian fell on his back on her floor, his head hitting the cold stone floor.

He woke up with a start.

"Oww" he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

"Sebastian!" She exclaimed.

"What in Merlin's name?!" She said looking exasperated. He looked cold, she could see him slightly shivering. She felt a little joy to see him suffer but she was concerned too, it was starting to get colder at night.

He slowly got up and continued to rub his head and stood with a small pout.

"I see some things never change." She commented smirking slightly at his pout.

"You look like a lost puppy." She continued.

"What are you waiting for? Get in before you freeze to death." she said in a soft voice concerned. "Sallow." She added in a completely different voice. She directed him to sit on the couch and brought him some hot tea as she gave him a blanket.

She left him with the tea and blanket to go to the shop to close the skylight, and when she returned, she saw that Sebastian was hunched over at the corner, his back to her.

"What are you doing on the floor?" She said voice a little loud. Sebastian turned around with the box of their mementos, one hand holding the box, another the dried up rose he had given her.

She had completely forgotten to put the box back in its safe spot. But to be fair she wasn't exactly expecting Sebastian sallow himself to be rummaging through it.

He looked at her with pleading eyes before he walked up to her and hugged her. She completely stood still, her arms still at her side.

"I'm sorry." His shoulders slumped over her body and his arms wrapped around her. She felt like she was about to cry again but there were no tears. The two must've stood there for what seemed like hours before Sebastian pulled apart.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

"I wish that meant anything Sebastian." She mumbled back.

"Please." He begged placing a hand on her face.

"You might as well slap me Sebastian. It wouldn't be as hurtful." She mumbled with a blank look on her face.

She gently removed his hand from her face.

"I thought I loved you. And I really did love you. But seeing you today made me realise that you already made that decision for us. You never think of anyone else except yourself, and I honestly didn't care about it as long as you were with me, but now, I just hope you find what you're looking for and I for sure know that, it's not me. You made sure of that too. I was ready to go with you. But you made your choice there too. You can't love anyone Sebastian Sallow. You only want people when they have something to give." She said walking away.

"I think it's best if you go now. And you can take that box with you. It's the last thing I can give you. My memories of you, that I've kept and cherished for so long. They've kept me up all night and sometimes helped me sleep. They're the best and the worst thing I've had and you can take them away too. Maybe after this, I won't have anything else left to give, and you can let me have my life back." She said monotonously as she held the door open waiting for him to leave. He stared at her begging with his eyes.

His eyes watered but she refused to look into them. He walked out of the door and she stood by it making sure he wouldn't stay. Sebastian pulled the box to his chest and walked out of her house and she watched as his silhouette fade into the night, hoping to never see him ever again.

Part 2

#hogwarts legacy #Sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow x you #sebastian sallow x reader #hogwarts #hogwarts legacy fan fic #sebastian sallow fan fic

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borzoilover69 · 11 months

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> BORZOI: READ HOMESTUCK LIKE ITS 2011 (PART 4)

(4225) Oh yeah it's all coming together now. This panel fucks so hard.

Jakeroxy is probably one of my fave relationships to think about they're so silly together! They have a really great relationship full of whimsy. They call out each others good points are generally incredibly supportive of each other, and they just feel like they click so easily together.

I could muse it comes down to their both shared aspect of void. While hope rings true in Jakes story, clear as a fucking bell, I have reason to suspect his secondary aspect may be void, due to how reluctant he is to open up to others, his ability to distance and generally keep off radar, and his own ignorance, not to mention his literal sort of secondary awareness he has for larger things hidden in the dark. Like seriously, where is he getting this information? Yet his own ignorance gets the better of him most times, leaving him paralyzed. This stirs up rage in others, his inverse.

As for how I approach classpects, well I like to see them sort of like a triad. Humans are multifaceted with multiple problems, so you should read up on your classpects. I started with Dana, and while I agree with some points, i don't really agree with all points, however Opacificas Classpect Meta is two essays that are a must read for any classpector.

Back to the point of the triad. You have your main classpect, which defines you and your main problem / struggle. You should carry to some extent of course traits of your inverse aspect. As a Prince of Void, I naturally ghost and carry traits of light, of extrapolating at length while I destroy void. I'm insightful and observant, yet more often than not I struggle with ignorance. My secondary is a Knight of Blood, due to how well I work with interpersonal relationships among others, pointing out what people are ignorant of helps me gain more knowledge of them as they toss their woes into the void that I naturally present. My bonds are strong however my natural gravitation towards void, towards being unknowable, etc, makes it difficult. My ignorance has been my downside on multiple occasions and while i've had difficulty with blood (hence why its secondary) my primary link is void.

So to sum up. Your main classpect should ring true to your main struggle and how you approach it, but also some of the inverse. They're two sides of the same coin after all. Class is your head, and how you use it. Aspect is your core, and what your nature is. Your secondary classpect is also necessary to help shit process. I don't know, you come up with a better allegory.

Maybe it'd help with how I classpected my boyfriend? I started off with looking at this post with a list of classes and aspects, and I listed off which felt like they fitted for my boyfriend:

Classes:

Witch

Thief

Mage

Aspect:

Doom

Space

Time

Heart

Having that, I started looking at classpects. Tossing at the walland seeing what would fit. But see that post I mentioned earlier doesn't really cut it. My boyfriend, personality wise according to that post, acts very much like a thief but he's not a thief at all, so we can cross that off the list. Thieves are about relocation which he certainly didn't do.

Then I took a look at aspects. If you're doing it right, go read these. Having read them, I figured out it was less problems with self and more about what needs to be done, and he wasn't as martyr like or acceptant of Doom as doom players often are, which left me with Space and Time. My boyfriend is very talented with the arts, and struggles with the same immaterial things space players do, but his mindset leant to time. I won't go into too much detail on it there, but like I said, take a read of Opacifica. Those essays are godsends. At the end of it we realised he was a knight of time. And oh boy was there a reaction.

Look NOTHING against davekat BUT WE ARE NOT DAVEKAT WE CANT DO THIS. (Hence my posts yesterday about it being so, so unbelievably over). But the shoe fit and it wouldn't come off.

So anyways final tip on classpecting, is if you have an alt account where you vent, go look at what you vent about. Or ask your friends for the reoccurring theme that your vents usually spiral into. Those help. But god I got offtopic, back to homestuck

Jake you speaking facts boy. Also is it just me or is the new Apple AR glasses reminding me of something.. I mean slap in some flashing colours on that puppy and you'd be set.

</3 :(

The frustration that sits in JaneRoxy is so often overlooked. Like shit man...it's a frustration that's so deeply rooted that it only comes out when she's drunk. I think realistically it'd come out at some point, perhaps at a party when they're older. Roxy getting upset that Jane didn't believe her, didn't see her as important as Roxy saw her. Accusing her of being unable to change. One that Jane will have to apologise over and over and even then it won't be fixed entirely. There is such tragedy and adversity that the Alpha kids have to tackle to keep their bonds strong.

Here's Jake being Jake. Just snaps right to the fucking chase! Well aware buddy! Most of his hesitant guesses and assumptions are usually facts that ring true and it's later in the story that they become more muddled but his assumption it's true never CHANGES and AUGH.

And then there's Roxy, with that subtle passive aggression that the alpha kids just HAVE going for them and facepalming as they type it out with gritted teeth. Roxy wants to be in something!! So sick of being relegated to the side to cling on.

4227

Boy watch out boy.

4228 I knew that panel looked familiar! Awesome! Except the thing is a million times BIGGER. Haha thats so awesome!

4230

You do the thing where you fly through the air shooting two guns at once. That thing isn't even that big of a deal for you. You do that thing practically every day on hellmurder island.

Jake English you are so admirable leaping out to shoot at a big monster I LOVE YOU.

4232

JAKE WATCH OUT- OH NO FUCK!!!! JAKE YOU HSOT TINKERBULL! YEAARGH!! AGGH! Haha the way he says AH HA. GOT YOU YOU SON OF A, SHIT, WAIT. is so funny.

4234

I really wanna redraw Jake panels later hes so endearing in all of them. (excepting a few..) Darling dearest.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THIS SHMUCK LETS CHECK ON JANE!

4242

This could be some primary body horror if I was good enough for it.

MY BROTHER IN CHRIST YOU JUST WATCHED HIM CRAWL OUT OF YOUR DEAD POPPOPS NECK HOLE AND YOU RESPOND BY CALLING HIM A TROUBLE MAKER?

4247

Majestic. Spectacular. Superb.

4249 spectacular. magnificent. Spiffy. spectacular.

4253

Jake is so small compared to so much life that is happening on the island good fucking GRIEF. And he doesn't even break a sweat he's just like "Ah botherations! Shit."

I'm out of images again. Welp.

#borzoi talks #borzoi reread #classpect meta #homestuck meta #homestuck #hom3stuck #jake english #classpects #roxy lalonde #jane crocker #alpha kids #borzoi meta

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lavful · 8 months

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Ninjago Rarepair Week Day 2 - Nicknames for Greenflower

Wrote a short continuation of my Greenflower fic for Day 2 of rarepair week.

Summary: Lloyd visits Brad at the apothecary and buys a flower for a special someone.

Excerpt:

On a sunny afternoon, Brad was arranging the flower display when he heard the bell ring. He turned and was delightfully surprised to see a head of light blond hair, but tried to rein in his excitement. “I’ll be with you in a moment,” he called out, as he would for any other customer.

“Brad, it’s me!” Lloyd said.

“Who’s ‘me?’” Brad teased.

“Aw, come on,” Lloyd found him among the displays and smiled satisfactorily. “You know who it is.”

Brad rolled his eyes playfully. “Nice to see you, Lloyd.”

Lloyd held his hands out, gesturing to his body. “I came back uninjured, like you said!”

Brad looked him up and down. He was dressed in another green gi. He wondered if he ever wore normal clothes. “Y’know, I’m actually impressed.”

“Don’t sound that surprised. I keep my promises.”

Brad smiled softly. “We’ll see.” He continued arranging flowers. Should he go by size or color? “You gonna buy something or what?”

Lloyd raised a brow, following Brad. “I’m not allowed to just come by and visit a friend?”

Brad chuckled. “You are. As long as you buy something. Or do you want to risk the wrath of Mr. Fucus?”

Lloyd raised his hands in surrender. “Definitely not. Well, I could use more of your sleeping tea. It’s really been helping me out. It can be hard to sleep in a big, empty monastery.”

“I’m glad! It’s Mr. Fucus’ formula.”

“And…” Lloyd pursed his lips in mischievous thought. “I’m looking for a flower for…a special someone.”

Brad didn’t want to acknowledge the way his heart sank when he heard those words. He didn’t look at Lloyd and continued messing with the flowers. “Yeah? And who’s this special someone?”

“Well, it’d be no fun if I told you. What would you recommend?”

Brad tried to maintain his professional composure and address Lloyd like any other customer. “You don’t have to say their name, but I have to at least know something about them to make a recommendation.”

“Alright.” Lloyd picked up a sunflower and twirled it in his hands. “It’s- it’s someone I’ve known for a long time. They’re really caring, humble, and sweet. Sometimes I think I don’t deserve their friendship.”

Brad glanced at him. “So it’s a friend? Not a um- boyfriend or girlfriend?”

Lloyd smirked. “Why? Were you worried about that?”

Brad turned away quickly, blushing hard. “No! And anyway, you didn’t answer my question.”

#greenflowershipping #forgivenshipping #ninjago rarepair week23 #ninjago fanfiction #ninjago lloyd #ninjago brad #lloyd garmadon #brad tudabone #ninjago #lego ninjago

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atiny-for-life · 1 year

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Ateez's Full Storyline Explained - Part 16

Masterlist

Halazia (Unnamed World)

I'd first like to say that all the information I’m referencing here comes from the MV, Prologue and Epilogue, Hongjoong’s Q&A shorts and the MV reaction video

In short: I'm just theorizing here but let's get going

First: the name "Halazia" - it's just a combination of "Hala" from Hala Hala (which can be translated from Sanskrit to 'black mass' or 'time puzzle') and "zia" which refers to the sun -> "Be the light, oh Halazia"

looking it up, you'll find some information about the Pueblo of Zia where a very specific symbol has been used for hundreds of years among the indigenous people to represent the sun that looks like this:

You'll now also find this symbol on the flag of New Mexico but the actual natives whose ancestors created and passed it down didn't consent to this and now there's a lot of (very justified) debate regarding intellectual property - this part has nothing to do with the Ateez lore, I just thought it was interesting and important to share in case anyone was thinking of getting this symbol tattooed or sth

Theory no 1 (basically confirmed by Hongjoong in his short lore Q&A vid): we're dealing with neither Ateez, nor the Black Pirates here

The main indicator to me was the lack of Mingi's "Fix on" and Hongjoongs lil giggles before their respective rap parts (which had previously been a constant, regardless of whether they were acting as Ateez or the Black Pirates)

But aside from that, it also seems like Yunho is the leader of this group with Hongjoong being his right-hand man as opposed to the other way around (and we get to see Yeosang’s birthmark which was previously always covered)

We do still see Hongjoong wearing an armband with the Cromer logo on it - so maybe it's more like Yunho's the public-facing head of the group while Hongjoong's in charge behind the scenes

Alternate reality-wise, we're in one very close to the Z-World where the Revolution has already ended but not quite so successfully, as we can see by the city up in smoke and rubble in the background

Since we've got Yunho sitting inside a ginormous, shattered Cromer, we can assume either (A) these guys themselves have already traveled through time and alternate realities to get here (which would align with what we see in the iconic Mnet livestage with the red and black outfits) and are now stuck until they found another one to take them back home - wherever that home may be or (B) this entire room is the remainder of the Black Pirates' hideout and the Cromer was destroyed by one of them before they were captured so it wouldn't fall into the hands of the government (which could mean one of them escaped to another reality)

Side-note: We've seen such a gravitational anomaly before during Diary Film after Hongjoong first received the Cromer in the A-World and was alone in the Ateez hideout

Side-note 2: You can find my theory on why a Cromer may be intentionall shattered by someone who understands its powers here)

Going by the lyrics, they've already been here long before the Revolution and used to live as regular citizens in Strictland before they had their microchips removed by the Black Pirates - I'm largely basing that on the iconic "No more, keep control" and "No more, keep your soul" -> they want to be in charge of their own lives, to feel and have free thought as opposed to the mindless drones the chips had forced them to be

Another thing worthy of noting is that, as the bell rings, we can see Seonghwa glitch which could have several meanings: they've got hologram technology which helps them make public appearances in the daytime more safely OR (given the ominous vibes of the sound and the association with the bell) they're either not fully human (which would also explain the post-production added CGI glint we see in Jongho's eye at two separate points in the MV) or otherwise existing in this world on borrowed time.

Alternatively, the bell could also indicate that our protaganists are more powerful at certain points in time and this is a visualization of that power. As the moon phases affect the Cromer, they may also affect them.

Regarding the Black Pirate outfits we're seeing throughout the video: our protagonists here were freed by them, alongside all the other people we get to see in the plaza and abandoned mall, but without Ateez's help, they didn't manage to stay undetected so the government either captured or straight-up murdered them

Left behind and without guidance while everyone is praying for the Black Pirates return (see: the Prologue), our protagonists have now stepped up and are rebuilding the movement - though whether they're burning the Black Pirates' outfits as a funeral ritual, out of frustration and anger due to feeling abandoned... or because the tattered clothes were strung up that way by the government to scare off further acts of rebellion Vlad-the-Impaler style which would make this a symbol of defiance, is unclear

Regardless, many of the other citizens who were freed seem willing to join their cause and their current mission seems to be to take down this anti-gravity orb

I can only make a rather baseless guess as to what the purpose of these things is but since it's actively rising here, it seems to be something newly installed that's meant to rise above city-level

The central government presumably built and installed it so maybe it can send out some kind of pulse or signal to regain control over the population - after all, the chips seem to have only had the link cut but weren't removed so re-establishing the link could be possible as long as the hardware wasn't fully fried (which would've probably needed harsher, more painful for the skin interference but what the heck do I know about this world's technological advances)

Either way, to me, that would explain both the fear in the lyrics about returning to their prior state of being pre-awakening, as well as why San was so ready to risk it all to break this thing

Either way, we've got Yeosang bringing in the chains to tie this thing up

Based on the skyline compared to the one from the prologue, it seems like the thick smoke pillars might be originating from the crash sites of the other orbs which would mean they already brought down all the other ones successfully and have now reached their last stop

They wrap the chains around the orb, tie it up all nice and neatly (which must've been a pain in the ass to do since that thing is floating in mid air, makes lightweight shit in its vicinity float and is well, the shape of a super smooth ball) and all start pulling together up until everyone seemingly leaves San to finish the job by himself

To me, there could be multiple reasons for this: (1) it was always part of the plan (highly unlikely imo), (2) everyone but San lost hope this was gonna work out since they're already exhausted af from doing this several times before and don't seem to have made all that much progress and maybe they think they've already done enough since this is seemingly the last orb left, (3) San convinced everyone to leave as they were working/everyone but him got too scared to continue because Android Guardians or another government entity were underway and would've killed or captured them if they were caught

Either way, it all ends with the orb evaporating the moment it collides with San as if his existence somehow canceled out the orb's. While this is very likely to be a creative decision since no one wants to see this human embodiment of sunshine get crushed to death, it could also mean San is still alive if he possesses abilities that go beyond a regular human's or if the orb isn't made up of regular matter/material.

Moving on to the Prologue and Epilogue:

Aside from what I already covered, there are also quite a few other things I want to bring up regarding what we get to see in these two bonus videos, starting with the numbers behind Hongjoong in the Prologue here (which were also pointed out by him in the Making Of video)

You can put these numbers (22152984) and decode them with A1Z26 in which case you'd get this (yes, I still use the Gravity Falls: Break the Code website for this kinda stuff - I refuse to be judged for it):

While this is rather nonsensical, it is quite close to "Bluebird" which would fit the lyrics but it's still just a lil bit unsatisfying since, properly encoded, it should have been "2-12-21-5-2-9-18-4", meaning they forgot a "1" twice.

Regardless, I couldn't find anything better - it can't be coordinates, there's no cypher like this for Hangul that I could find, and using Base64 only gets you "my8" which doesn't make too much sense but Ateez are 8 members so that's nice, I guess.

The first thing that pops up in my search results when I look up the numbers is "Buy 22152984 from Oxygen Electronics" by the way - shout out to life support machine parts you can order online (no affiliation, though I do hope they're an ethical company)

Regarding the numbers, I'll leave it at that for now but if I ever find something that makes more sense, I'll update this!

Ah yes, the mysterious blonde person that pops up toward the end of the Prologue and disappears in the blink of an eye as someone walks past

Seonghwa is the only one who takes note of them and, based on his neutral expression, it doesn't seem to be the first time he's seen them

Are they the Witness? I do think so but we'll come back to it in a moment.

Skipping ahead to the Prologue uploaded yesterday, we're opening with a shot of the bluebird we've already gotten to see in the Prologue and which has also been referenced in the lyrics - it's a symbol of reclaiming freedom, of escaping your shackles, of finding your voice and using it. They've now made it. They've chosen freedom. They've chosen to fight.

The bird's path now guides Seonghwa through the abandoned mall where the orb was brought down and San was sacrificed. It whistles a lil tune and disappears near a lone white-clad figure we've seen before.

Last seen among a small group on the rooftop at the end of the MV, our blondie stands by themselves again, though the others aren't far as we'll soon see

Since the mission is now over, Seonghwa let's his curiosity win and follows the figure up a dark staircase, letting his flashlight guide him

He finds the group of four from the rooftop standing in a dark room against the backdrop of the smoking skyline behind the large windows - they were waiting for him

A white flash, rolling thunder and they're gone. Just like after Yeosang broke the Cromer, we also got to witness the Cromer's powers here. This marks the third Cromer, meaning these four are from yet another reality and they've now become Witnesses of our protagonists' achievements.

They also left behind a departing gift: a silver bracelet engraved with the words "Be Free"

Like A-World's Seonghwa, it seems the blonde Witness has also gotten inspired by their world's version of the dancing girl (whom I theorize to be Left Eye's daughter) and they've now left behind this bracelet, hoping it'll inspire this world's Seonghwa the way it inspired them

#ateez #ateez lore #halazia #hongjoong #seonghwa #yunho #yeosang #san #mingi #wooyoung #jongho

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grelleswife · 11 months

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I get the feeling some of the staff have no idea what goes on with those kids too tbh 💀 like someone lied to them too.

Hi, anon! Based on the pattern established by the previous two mission arcs, my guess is that the F.O.L. staff are at least partially aware of the orphanage’s true purpose, even though most of them probably don’t know the full details.

During the maid arc, Jane wasn’t privy to why Heathfield manor was collecting blood, but she knew those illicit activities were going on as soon as she stepped through the door, since she was hired to act as a bodyguard and keep the operation under wraps. Other servants were also active participants in the scheme, including Abbie the housekeeper, depicted below showing Jane where the unconscious maids were held.

Likewise, Ada was complicit in drawing blood from her patients, even after making the connection between the dark underbelly of Sphere Music Hall and Athena Sanatorium. Of course, unlike Jane (who didn’t give a damn about the victims and only had her own pecuniary interests in mind) Ada sincerely cared for her patients, only continuing to collect blood under threat of losing funds if she disobeyed orders.

Based on the events up to Chapter 200, I think the F.O.L. staff acknowledge that there’s shady business afoot but keep their heads down and focus on the job—if the orphans are hurt in the process, that’s not their problem. 🤷‍♀️

As Theodore told Finny, “the forest that surrounds F.O.L. Orphanage is filled with countless traps, the guardhouse is always staffed, and they’re on watch twenty-four hours a day to keep an eye on us.” Even if the adults were kept completely in the dark, surely some of them would find these excessive defenses and constant surveillance a little suspicious (Assuming Yana isn’t making them obtuse for the sake of plot convenience 🤪)!

There’s also an undercurrent of tension (not the fun kind) among the ladies that occasionally rears its head. For example, when Doll begs these characters to let Snake stay at the orphanage just before Finny and him are booted out, their discomfort is obvious. This doesn’t look like annoyance at a child’s whims, but apprehension about crossing someone with a degree of power over them.

Later on, when a minor change is made to the menu for the Pomeranian class’s afternoon tea, the staff flies into an all-out panic. And when Snake has the temerity to question their overblown reaction, one of the workers is so shocked that she involuntarily drops the plate she’s carrying. It’s almost like the grownups have the threat of dire consequences looming over their heads if they put a toe out of line. 👀

Also, consider how sinister the paneling is when the chief of staff informs Susan of Ginny’s fledging day. Pitch-black backgrounds, shadowed faces. Not the reaction you’d expect from blissfully clueless women who assumed they worked for a Nice Normal Orphanage that Definitely Does Not Kill Kids.

Speaking of fledging day…anyone with an ounce of common sense would hear alarm bells ring when all the orphans who attempt to escape or fail to meet the class system’s rigid expectations are sent packing. Again, the workers are either blind to what’s right in front of their noses, or they’re in on it.

Moreover, the staff make it their prerogative to keep the children ignorant. The newspapers given to the orphans are regularly censored to filter out any information—such as the uncovering of Sphere Music Hall’s crimes—that might clue the kids in to the grim reality in which they’re trapped. It’s possible that the adults are told they’re removing such content for the kids’ own good, to avoid upsetting them…but why be so assiduous in controlling the orphans’ perspective of the outside world unless you know there’s something to hide?

While it’s unclear if they’ve been told who (and what) Doll actually is, they apparently know enough to cover for her when those pesky bizarre doll traits start peeking through. After Doll has to excuse herself following a woozy spell, Susan rushes to placate Snake with a bullshit excuse about her period (because everyone with a uterus turns into a fragile fainting flower when that time of the month rolls around. Didn’t you know? 🤡) and quickly changes the subject before they can ask too many questions. To me, at least, this read like a blatant attempt to conceal Doll’s episode from Finny and Snake, even if Susan isn’t completely aware of what these occurrences entail.

And finally, there’s no way these workers sincerely believe that they shave orphans’ heads on their fledging day TO “GET RID OF LICE AND FLEAS” when F.O.L. Orphanage is supposedly such a prestigious establishment. You’re lying through your teeth, Susan. (If those poor babeys aren’t having their hair clipped for surgical purposes, I’ll eat my shoes)

While I doubt the workers have the whole story, they’re far from innocent.

#kuro asks #kuroshitsuji #jane #ada #doll #snake #finnian #finny #the f.o.l. kids #i’m sure they don’t know the gory details but they sure as heck don’t have the kids’ best interests in mind #sorry for the rambling but i do not control the brainrot #i simply do its bidding

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shadowmaat · 5 months

Text

Mischief and Misinformation, part 2

(Part 1)

"Knight Kenobi!"

Obi-Wan turned to see a grinning Kit Fisto bearing down on him. His fellow Knight was a few years ahead of him in classes, and there were whispers he might be on track for the Council someday.

"Kit, I've been a Knight for two years, now," he smiled. "Throwing my title at me is getting a little old."

Kit laughed. "Says you!" He clapped a hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder. "Do you have time for a spar? Or do your Knightly duties call you away from your resounding defeat?"

"You wish, Fisto!" Chuckling, he glanced at his chrono. Anakin would be in classes for another two hours, which should leave him plenty of time.

"I think I have enough time to show an old man the dangers of hubris!"

"Old man!" Kit clutched his chest, bare beneath his outer robe. "I think you meant handsome! Or clever. Or-"

"Save that energy for the salle, Kit." Obi-Wan winked. "You're going to need it."

After working out the rules and going through their warmup stretches, they launched into the spar without too much preamble.

Kit's style was flashy, which made for a good distraction to the power behind the showmanship. He also had a more fluid sense of movement, which was something Obi-Wan found common among the aquatic and amphibious species.

They traded good-natured barbs as well as saber strikes, but then Kit seemed to shift gears.

"I wanted to say how sorry I was about what happened to you on Melidaan," he said, leaping over him to attempt a slash at his back.

Obi-Wan blocked it, frowning. "What?"

Had he been offworld recently? A few smaller mission, but nothing dangerous, not with Ani to consider. The name did ring a vague bell, though. He tried a leg sweep, which Kit avoided by flipping up to the wall and launching himself in another direction.

"I know Master Jinn was a highly-respectable Master, and his loss still ripples through the Temple-"

Kit reversed direction, scored a tap against Obi-Wan's arm, and got a tap of his own for his effort.

'-but leaving you alone in a war zone for a year is unconscionable!"

"What?" Obi-Wan repeated, blocking another swing. "What war zone? Wait- Melidaan..." Memory started to bubble forth, along with an uneasy sense of déjà vu.

"Have you been in so many wars you can't remember?"

Kit's tone should have been teasing, but there was a degree of worry mixed in as well.

"No, I remember." He hissed as Kit got in another strike on his leg. "But Melidaan... Qui-Gon didn't abandon me there, certainly not for a year. We were there maybe a tenday, and Qui-Gon remained in charge of the mission until it was safe for us to leave."

Between storms and bombing, there hadn't been a way off the planet. Qui-Gon's attempts at mediation had failed. Obi-Wan had done what he could for the victims of both sides- including a group of children- but in the end, and with Master Tahl's condition worsening, they'd taken the first opportunity to leave and dump the problem back in the Senate's lap.

"I'm relieved to hear that."

Kit made a move Obi-Wan couldn't quite track and scored a final hit to his shoulder.

"Solah." Disengaging his blade he rubbed his shoulder. "Where did you read about the Melidaan mission? This isn't the first time someone's come to me with a spacer tale version of my own life."

It was Kit's turn to frown. "The mission archives. I heard about-"

Obi-Wan's comm went off. It was Master Bear, Ani's ropework instructor.

"Ani threw up all over the nets and has been taken to the healer," the gruff voice of the Harchian Master said. "You'd best see to him."

The comm clicked off and Obi-Wan swore under his breath. The cafeteria had been serving custard yesterday and he'd bet his lightsaber that Ani's vomit was primarily blue.

Kit shook his head, rattling the bands on his ahwey. "This is why I'm never taking on a padawan," he said. "Go see to Ani. We can finish catching up later."

"Yes," Obi-Wan said, already striding for the exit. "I'd like to know what else the mission archives have to say about me."

As the doors closed he could hear Kit saying, "You aren't the only one."

#jedimindfic #Obi-Wan Kenobi #Kit Fisto

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flyinghome-againstthewind · 1 year

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Beside the Seaside: Ch 4

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Jamie had grown used to leaving the door open behind the front desk during his quiet hours of business, giving a window view of his life to anyone walking past the front hallway. It hardly phased him anymore to see a guest peering in, looking for assistance. And for the times he wasn’t watching the doorway with a keen eye, there was the bell on the front desk.

He was finishing up his porridge when he heard the bell ring, and shuffled quickly to the door, catching sight of those warm, amber eyes that had filled his dreams the night before. “Good morning, Mrs. Beauchamp.”

“Did you sleep alright?”

Her abrupt question startled him, sent his mind reeling down the absurd path that somehow she knew his thoughts — knew that he’d dreamt of her. Why on earth would she ask him that question?

But then her gaze flicked to his arm, still held in a sling, and he felt like a prize fool. Aye, that.

“Oh. Aye, the arm wasn’t too much trouble for me.”

He was treated to an easy smile. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“And ye? I hope the room was to your liking.”

“Yes, the rooms are lovely. I just meant to ask about breakfast yesterday and it slipped my mind.”

“Ah. Well.” He could feel his smile turning sheepish. “We do have a kitchen and I’m working on getting my cook up here as soon as possible, but we dinnae have anything in operation just yet. I hope to be able to serve breakfast soon, but for the time being I have a few nearby places I can recommend.”

“That would be fine, thank you.”

He turned for the assortment of local business flyers that the town council provided and grabbed one with a map. Unfolding on the counter between them, he took a pencil to the map as he spoke. “This one here is closest and the food’s good. But ye have plenty of options too if ye want to explore a little further into town. Lots of shops and cafes along this street. And a bakery here — Faith loves their scones.”

He brought his head up and realized how close they’d moved, bent over the same map, but Claire — Mrs. Beauchamp — was still studying the map. He caught the scent of her shampoo, something light and flowery, and straightened fully, rebelling against every instinct in his body by leaning away from the counter.

“Thank you,” she was saying as she folded up the map. “This will be a great help.” She glanced up briefly with an indulgent smile, “until your cook arrives, of course.”

“Aye. She’s a fine cook too, but she’s a widow and spending time traveling to visit all o’ her grandchildren so I’m not so high on her priorities right now,” he joked.

“You’ve worked with her before then?”

“She worked for my uncles for years. They owned quite a few hotels across the Highlands — Leoch, perhaps ye’ve heard of?” Off Claire’s nod of recognition, he grinned broadly. “I went to work for them after I finished school.”

“And liked it enough to open your own inn, then?”

“It wasn’t the plan,” he admitted. “Thought I would work at Leoch a bit longer, but it wasn’t enough then when I was to be a husband and a father. And then… Well, the war happened.”

Mrs. Beauchamp gave an understanding nod. “But you’re here now.”

“Aye,” he said with a slight smile. “Much to Faith’s delight. Never kent her greatest dream was to try to manage a wee inn all her own at the tender age of seven.”

She laughed at that, and the sound filled the cracks in his chest with its lightness. “She’s a darling. She must keep you and your wife on your toes, though.”

It startled him, briefly, the implication that he still had a wife. He was used to Lallybroch and people who had known him all his life, and even in just a few months, he’d grown used to the close-knit feel of community among the permanent residents of Nairn and how it only took one person learning he was a widower for it to become general knowledge to the rest. It didn’t happen very often that he had to explain his situation.

“She does indeed keep me on my toes, but my wife has passed. It’s only me and Faith.”

“Oh—”

“It’s alright,” he assured preemptively, for he knew by now the guilt that was expressed whenever someone stumbled blindly into that assumption. He did mention being a husband and a father first, so it wasn’t her fault. “How would you have known?”

“Well, I… I am sorry to hear that, nonetheless. It’s hard being the only parent, I know.”

He felt relief at her own revelation, that he didn’t need to find a way to ask the question that had burned on the tip of his tongue since he met her and her son yesterday.

He nodded, gave her a tight-lipped smile of understanding. “Are ye… a war widow then?”

He’d barely gotten the question out before they both heard the creak of the stairs and spotted young Fergus in search of his mother. Claire turned back to him briefly and murmured with a pinched expression, “No, in fact, I’m divorced.”

There could be no response from him as Fergus joined them — and perhaps that had been her intention to seize the opportunity for honesty without further questions. She smiled politely and thanked him for his help before ushering her son out the door in their search for breakfast.

He was a little ashamed of himself, as he watched the two of them leave, to find that Claire’s words had a spring of hope welling up in his chest. For whether she was widowed or divorced, it meant it was no sin to covet her after all.

And covet her he did.

----------

Elijah’s Cafe was only a few blocks towards the center of town, the first place to eat that could be reached from the inn, just as Jamie Fraser had said. Fergus made the decision for them, turning towards the cafe’s door rather than wander any further in search of food. It was a quaint little spot, only serving breakfast and lunch throughout the week. Fergus dropped onto the chair at the table nearest the large front window, and Claire joined him.

A mousy girl of about fourteen took down their order and disappeared into the kitchen. Claire gave Fergus an appraising look and clasped her hands together. “So, I thought we could take today and get the lay of the land, and maybe visit the museum if we have time.”

Fergus made a sound of acknowledgement. “Et la plage?”

“We could scope out the beach too,” Claire agreed a bit dubiously, eyeing the foggy, misty morning outside the window. “I don’t know if it’s the best day for swimming — it looks like it might rain — but we should have plenty of opportunities while we’re here for a good beach day.”

When their breakfast was brought out, they quietly dug in, but had scarcely more than five minutes of peace before the proprietor of the cafe appeared at their table.

“Good morning to you both, my name is Tom Christie. I trust everything is to your liking?” The man’s gaze seemed to linger on Claire, which was prolonged by the awkward fact that she’d taken a huge bite of food just before he’d joined them and couldn’t immediately speak. When she glanced across at Fergus, she noticed with sinking dread that a mischievous spark had ignited in Fergus’s eyes.

“Yes, everything is lovely, thank you,” she hastened to say, hoping to dismiss Mr. Christie, but he seemed in no rush to leave, and so Fergus spoke up as well.

“This food tastes like it was cooked in piss.”

He’d spoken in French, and dressed his words in the politest tone he could manage. Claire’s foot swung out and caught him in the shin, but his pleasant smile to the man only wavered briefly.

“Pardon?” Tom Christie looked to Claire — Fergus’s gamble that he didn’t know French had paid off — and waited for her to translate. She felt her face flame but smiled through it.

“He loves it. Please give our compliments to your cook.”

Tom thanked them and, mercifully, turned away.

“Fergus Claudel Beauchamp,” Claire whispered furiously, but Fergus didn’t even give her the courtesy of pretending to be sorry. Christ, she was raising a maniac. “Why would you say that to a perfect stranger? He hasn’t done anything to you.”

“He seems like a pompous ass.”

“You don’t know that.”

Fergus gave a slight, unrepentant shrug.

Claire sighed and picked up her fork again, turning her attention back to her breakfast. “One of these days someone might actually know what you’re saying, and then you’ll be in real trouble.”

“I like my chances.”

She gave him her most withering stare and he finally began to eat his breakfast again, though he still looked a little too pleased with himself.

While they ate, she tried not to dwell on the fact that she hadn’t had to scold him like that since before they came home. He hadn’t felt like he could be mischievous around Frank. The thought made her stomach sour. When she reflected on how hard Fergus had had to work for an ounce of affection from his would-be father, she wanted to scream for not seeing the warning signs sooner. She’d thought… if she’d just given it time…

Claire didn’t want him insulting strangers by any means, but it was the first glimpse of the tiny terror she’d known back in France to resurface, and that had her both on alert and feeling oddly hopeful.

----------

They ended up starting with the museum, which was housed in a glorious old building and provided some of the local history of Nairn and the surrounding area. Claire found several things that brought a spark of remembrance of her uncle Lamb — like the time they had gotten lost in the Highlands trying to find a dig site, and had to rough it in the Scottish wilderness for a night once the sun went down. Uncle Lamb had then taught her how to build a campfire that fed logs into the fire once the previous ones had turned to ashes. She shared those stories with Fergus as they walked through each room, and noticed when his face lit up over some clever bit of knowledge from Lamb or some part of their adventure that thrilled him. She wondered if he saw how similar their own story had begun in France as her life with Uncle Lamb had — with one willful, curious child, and one unprepared adult thrust into parenthood and just trying to keep their wits.

They ventured out to High Street afterwards, exploring the shops and getting Fergus his promise of sweets. When it was just the two of them in the museum, she could coax smiles out of Fergus, but the farther they walked, stepping into each storefront that drew their interest, she watched her son retreat further into himself with every friendly local who tried to talk to them.

Worst of all, as afternoon had arrived, the sun had emerged and it had turned out to be a lovely day, but they’d wasted too many hours in town to justify trying to fit in a visit to the beach as well. So she let him purchase an exorbitant amount of sweets to make up for it, wanting to see some spark of the boy again from breakfast, from the museum…

He’d thanked her and fallen silent as they strode out onto High Street once more. It would take time, she reminded herself. Rome wasn’t built in a day, Uncle Lamb would’ve said.

But it was more than clear Fergus had at least had his fix of the town for the day, so she steered them back towards the sea.

“You go on ahead, darling,” Claire nodded in the direction of the inn, knowing Fergus could find his way. “I just need to drop something in the post.”

Fergus went without another word, grabbing one of her shopping bags for her. She watched him for a moment, making sure he found the winding road to the inn with no trouble, and then turned back to the post office she’d spotted earlier.

There was still the business of their house in Oxfordshire to sort out; Frank hadn’t wanted it for himself, and Claire hadn’t wanted to stay but it was at present the only permanent residence for her and Fergus. She planned to hold onto it until they found another house but for the next few weeks at least, she’d asked her neighbor Mrs. Blyth to look in on the place for them while they were gone. The letter was for her — a simple thank you, and to let her know they made it safely to their destination, and an address for them at the inn in case it was needed.

The salt-sea air lifted her spirits as soon as she emerged from the post office. She strolled back towards the inn, just her thoughts and the warm breeze to keep her company.

Faith was outside to greet her, drawing a hop-scotch court on the front pavement, and her face split into a wide grin when she spotted Claire. “Hallo, Mrs. Beauchamp!”

“Hello, Faith. Relieved of your desk duties for now?” she teased.

“For now,” Faith said with a nod. “D’ye want to play?”

“Oh,” Claire startled with a laugh. “I don’t know if I’m wearing the right shoes for that, if I’m honest.” They were dress shoes with a slight heel, and she’d already cursed herself for all the miles she’d walked in them today.

“You can do it,” the girl encouraged.

“Well just one run through, I suppose.”

Faith cheered as Claire set her bags down. She shook her head at herself, at how quickly she’d succumbed to the sweet, dimpled smile of one Faith Fraser.

She hopped through Faith’s hand-drawn court with only a pinch of discomfort in her feet, and was treated to a celebratory cheer at the end.

“Your turn now,” Claire told her. “Let’s see it.”

She gave the little girl the same level of enthusiasm once she had taken her turn, and with a gentle, playful tug to one of Faith’s braids, she bid her goodbye for now, turning up the front steps to the Fairy Hill. The front doors were propped open to the late afternoon sun and seabreeze, and she spotted Fergus at the front desk talking animatedly to Jamie Fraser. It gave her pause to see him so happily engaged in conversation that she didn’t realize at first that he wasn’t the only one speaking in French until she caught the easy reply from Jamie in Fergus’s native tongue.

“Maman!” Fergus spotted her return and drew her into their conversation, continuing in French, “Monsieur Fraser says any of the books in the study are available for the guests to borrow. Can I go see?”

Her heart squeezed at the apparent joy this brought him, at the way he’d talked with someone else so openly after months of shutting himself off. She didn’t care if it embarrassed him; she tugged his head closer and kissed the top of his curls, blinking away the brief sting of tears.

“Bien sûr mon chéri.”

With her permission, he was once again off without another word, disappearing into the inviting room just off the main hallway. Claire had only poked her head in there earlier, and loved the feel of the space, with walls lined with books and a scattering of sofas and chairs for lounging.

She turned her gaze to Jamie. “You speak French?”

“A wee bit,” he smiled, sounding every bit the Scotsman once more. “I have some family in France.”

“You’re full of surprises, Jamie Fraser.”

“What about Fergus? How did a wee French laddie end up with such a Scottish name?”

Claire laughed softly. “One of the soldiers bestowed that on him. It was before I met him, so he’s always been Fergus to me.”

Jamie cocked his head at that, but recovered quickly from that admission. Still, Claire voiced the thought she knew he had. “You thought he was mine — my biological son, that is.”

“Aye,” he chuckled, indicating to her hair, which was brown and curly, not unlike Fergus’s, but altogether a different shade and pattern. “Suppose folks see what they want to see, aye?”

“Yes, that’s been true enough for us.”

“Ye met during the war then?”

She told him, as briefly as she could, how Fergus had come to be such a big part of her life, and how she’d come to realize that they needed each other, and her resolution to bring him home once the war ended. She didn’t say how disastrous it had been to try and become a family of three with Fergus and Frank, but having already mentioned her divorce to Jamie this morning, he seemed to connect the dots on his own that these events in her life were closely tied.

His gaze flicked over to the study, to where Fergus was carefully inspecting the titles of one bookshelf.

“The name suits him.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” She took a deep breath, tried to keep the tears out of her voice as she thought of how he’d looked talking to Jamie moments ago. “Thank you, for your kindness to him. For the… the books.”

His smile deepened. “He’s welcome to anything that interests him. He’s a good lad.”

Her throat clogged, and she could only manage a nod. How long had she waited for Frank to make that discovery for himself that Fergus was good and kind and… worthy? A near stranger had somehow seen that in her son after only a few days. She’d been so blind to what was happening within their home for months while Fergus languished.

Jamie’s smile dimmed — dammit, she never could keep her emotions off her face — and his hand covered her own. “Have I said something to upset ye, lass?”

“No, not at all. It’s—” She took a fortifying deep breath and dropped her gaze. “He’s been through so much. I just want better for him now. Whatever I can give him.”

“That I do understand.” When she looked back at him, his gaze had gone to the front doors, through which young Faith could still be seen playing by herself.

“Does she miss her mother very much?”

“She never knew her. Kirstine died in childbirth.”

“God. I’m— so sorry.” Her mind had filled in the gaps around Jamie’s news this morning that he was a widow, and some part of her had assumed Faith had at least had her mother for a time while her father was away.

“Thank ye,” Jamie said, seeming at a loss for what else to say. He leaned forward on the counter, bracing his weight on both elbows, and then seemed to think better of it, withdrawing with the slightest wince. It was then that Claire realized what was missing from his attire.

“You aren’t wearing your sling!”

Jamie looked a little startled and then guilty, like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “It’s alright,” was all he said. Claire narrowed her eyes at him.

“You fell from a ladder only yesterday,” she reminded him, not letting him off the hook. “I’m hard pressed to believe your shoulder is back to normal already.”

“It’s a bit… tender still, aye, but the sling was restricting my movement—”

“As it should.”

Jamie sighed sharply. Inexplicably, Claire felt the tug of a small smile and tried to smother it.

“I’ve gotten under your skin about this,” she started, in a poor attempt at an apology. The rest of what she planned to say fled from her mind when Jamie’s gaze cut to hers, and her stomach fluttered at the heat in that stare — like she had gotten under his skin, only he didn’t mind it…

“It’s alright,” he repeated, though his tone had shifted the meaning of those words into something gentler, something meant for her and not a dismissal of the subject like before. “I’m careful not to strain it, but I didnae want the reminder of what happened, for my wee Faith’s sake. I dinnae want her to think I was badly harmed.”

Claire’s bullishness at wanting to adhere to medical advice softened over his words. “It was an accident.”

“I ken, and I want her to ken that as well. I dinna want her to worry.”

There was more there that Jamie wasn’t saying, that Claire didn’t understand, but she told herself not to push.

“Well,” she began, practicality winning out in the end, “I suppose it would be fine to ditch the sling, as long as you’re careful. And if anything hurts, for God’s sake, stop.”

Jamie let out a huff of a laugh, and Claire’s brows rose to her hairline. He raised one hand — the good arm — in front of himself in a mock gesture for mercy. “I will, I promise. I was only thinking your bedside manner is fit for dealing wi’ the lousy lot of soldiers ye must have tended to.”

“Lousy lot is right,” she teased, giving him a wry smile. “So you wouldn’t want to test me.”

“No, I dinnae think I would.”

She stood there a moment longer, basking in the warmth of his company, until she couldn’t justify a reason to linger; he was working, after all. This was his business, to run the inn and make them feel at home here.

“Well, I won’t keep you.”

“Ach, you’re no’ keeping me,” he reassured even as he let her go. That Jamie Fraser magnetism she couldn’t quite explain — or resist its pull.

She corralled Fergus from the study and walked silently with him up the stairs, her gaze falling to the book now tucked under his arm. Her heart squeezed. She couldn’t help dwelling on the… the home-ness of it all — this place, this once-familiar inn, and Jamie Fraser.

#jamie x claire #outlander #outlander fic #faith fraser #fergus fraser #beside the seaside #ol fic #my fic

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madmachaca · 10 months

Text

Part 2 of these PKNA fanfiction (feat mostly Lyla and Camera 9) that apparently I can't stop writing

Here is part 1, if you are interested.

And here is the one that started this, and that goes chronologically after this one.

I am writing this because I love the potential friendship between Camera 9 and Lyla and wanted to explore that. This one got long, so I haven't written all the ideas I have... a part three may be posted one of these days

Hope you enjoy reading!

Since she was already at Time 0 for a mission report and a check up, she might as well dwell on the archives.

Information about every single person, both android and biological, was registered there. If there was somewhere to look, it was definitely this place.

The question was no longer "what's his name?" but "who is he?"

Now, was it easier just to ask him? Yes...and no. Lyla liked her workmate, but the fact that he was able to follow her twice without her noticing made her proceed with caution.

She typed the name "Stefan Vladuck, 20th century. " ... oh... there it was... it only took a while.

Feeling a little nervous, she opened the file and read.

Name: Vladuck, Stefan

Type: Biological

Species: Duck

Place of birth: Bulgaria (officially)

Nationality: Not found

...what?

"What do you mean not found?" said Lyla softly with a hint of annoyance. She kept reading

Job: War/hotspot journalist. Vanished from the public eye for years. Television

Cause of death:

And Lyla closed the file abruptly. If she kept reading, she would learn more about ....her friend, but she wouldn't dare to keep going.

The bad side of Time 0 is that everyone you know is simultaneously dead and alive or might as well be.

With a heavy sigh, she left the archives and prepare to head back to Duckburg.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since she couldn't get the information she wanted back in Time 0, Lyla decided to consult more traditional sources

"Angus, does the name Stefan Vladuck ring a bell?"

The kiwi raised his eyes from his notes to see the young reporter looking at him with curious eyes

"What? Is the youth suddenly interested in the classics?

Lyla didn't respond. Angus stood, for he was leaving, and elaborate as he put on his coat

"If you are trying to contact him, stop losing your time. He was a great one but disappeared one day just like that. He's probably dead"

"So I guess asking him to work with us would be impossible, then?" Said Lyla as she smiled sweetly

"Why would someone like him work with us? Hey! You! Stop losing time and come! There is news to report!" And he dragged Camera 9 out of the office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a while since she was on the last level of Ducklair Tower. She liked visiting PK even if it was for a "professional" reason. But going on missions with him was fun too, even if dangerous.

"PK will be here soon," ONE said, interrupting the peaceful silence that had been taking over of the area before. "Would you care of tea? A magazine? A piece of cake?"

"That's ok, ONE" she said with a smile " I enjoy just walking around."

And as soon as she had said this, she stopped. Something had caught her eye: a picture of her hero friend pinned on a board. His pose was heroic, his cape fell graciousy, and his expression was determined and strong. She couldn't recognize the background, but that was of minor importance. The lighting was weirdly warm.

"All right!" Said Donald as he entered the room "it was hard, but Uncle Scrooge won't force me to go to the dying lakes of whatever-they-might-be to help him with yet another one of his adventures, so we are free to go, Lyla... Lyla?"

"Ah? ....oh, sorry. I was looking at this picture of yours"

And Donald came closer to see which one she was talking about

"Ah, yeah" he said with a big, bright smile "that one is my favorite! I look so cool and handsome!"

"Not an easy feat, but it was posible!" Commented ONE, another playful teasing among friends that Donald didn't appreciate that much

"It's a great photo" said Lyla as she looked for details more closely

"Well" answer Donald and he almost sounded proud "he is a great photographer"

"Who?"

"Stefan" he replied casually.

Silence, not awkward or cold, but the kind that comes when your brain refuses to accept what it just heard

"Who did you say?"

Donald glaced over her noticing something was ... odd...

"Stefan...Vladuck"

"You know him?"

"Well, you can say so, we meet once and he took those" he said pointing at all the photos in the board "he helped me trick Angus Fangus, and he really seem to enjo..."

"Tell me about him" interrupt her soflty, clearly she wasn't really listening

"Huh?"

"Eh?" Lyla suddenly realized the slightly concerned looks Donald was giving her.

"I...I mean, this picture is so good it just made me wonder about the person who took it"

ONE came to break the awkwardness

"As far as we know," he said, "Vladuck used to be a photojournalist who specialized in potentially dangerous jobs"

"You mean...?"

"War." Said Donald "Though sometimes he was sent to guerrillas or natural disaster sites... of course, he did other types of photojournalism..."

Lyla took another photo in her hands. The whole situation felt surreal. Every piece of new information she collected on him made things simultaneously clearer and more confusing

"Is he well known?"

"Yeah!" answer Donald way to quickly "if you are familiar with the field, I guess"

Lyla looked even more into the pictures, without realizing a soft smile appeared on her face

"He is talented" she said almost in a whisper. "Why did he stop?"

"I don't know. You can just go an ask him"

She turned confused at the heroe

"Huh?"

"If you are suddenly so curious about him, it's because you know" he said, shrugging

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Lyla? What are you doing here? I thought I asked you to cover the accident on 4th street"

Her slightly annoyed boss was infront of her, waiting for an answer

"Sorry, Dan. I'll be on my way," she replied with a sweet voice."I am just waiting for Camera 9"

"Oh, Angus took him earlier for his own scoop," interrupted Mike on the other side of the room. "He said that, since he is smaller, he can fit anywhere easily"

A weird silence fell. How do you even respond to that?

Dan sighed

"Just take any other camera man"

"Yes, Dan"

And so she left. It has been three days since she had talked to him

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two more days passed until she was able to work with him.

As she waited for him on the car, she wondered how to start the conversation. There were still so many unanswered questions, but she didn't want to make things weird. He was a workmate she actually liked spending time with. She did want him to cut her off in anyway.

Soon, he got in the car. She thought some more of the best way to start: Should she use his name? Should she call him Nine still? Does she even want to explain what happened? Does he...?

"What's the organization?"

Oh well, she didn't thought of starting there

"Come again?"

"You asked me if I was with the organization. Back at the warehouse..."

Lyla considered her answer. Whatever happened to whatever you are doing, it's not my business, Miss Lay?

"Let's just say I don't like them very much" she decided ambiguity was her best card right now

"Are you in trouble?"

His voice was serious and a little concerned. She needed him not to worry

"Ah? No, it's all right, ...Stefan..."

He huffed, amused, and shook his head

"It's a nice name," she added

"Thank you"

He fastened his seat belt and laid back on his seat

"Ok, let's go!" he said happily, and Lyla just drove off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Should I keep calling you Nine, or...?"

The atmosphere in the room was peaceful and even relaxing, if you ignored the multiple papers scattered around and the whiteboard with a huge question mark

"I guess you can use either." he answered "As long as you don't use my real name around others... now, where would the owner of a fraudulent beauty clinic go"

Researching for a scoop could get as intense and draining as any police investigation. But Lyla discovered he was a fun fellow journalist to be around

"Mouseton," she pointed out. "According to this, she recently brought property there... Why not around others? Are you hiding or something?

"I'm just extremely introverted... If she wanted to hide, why Mouseton? Why go to a place where people may look first, based on her purchase record. Maybe she is still in Duckburg"

"You're probably right. The police would looked on her newly brought properties first and by the time they get the authorization to enter the city, she would be long gone" she said taking notes on the board "is it ok if I call you Nine most of the time?"

She didn't say it, but his real name felt a little too intimate at the moment

"Yeah, you can call me Nine, or Stefan, or whatever you feel comfortable with. You're the only one who calls me just "nine" and to be honest, I like the nickname...Lyla, look at this..." and he showed her a picture. At the back, they could barely make the form of a tall, purplish figure

"That looks Evronian" said Lyla in a surprised, breathy voice. "Was the clinic just an Alien hideout?"

"Someone better call PK"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lyla had been looking through boxes and boxes of past newspapers. She was assigned to write a column on the story of Cornelius Coot for the city's anniversary, and she had a lot of reading to do

"You do it! Since you were born in Duckburg! it would be easy!" Had said Angus, who had rejected the project since he arrived in Duckburg relatively not long ago. So there was Lyla, looking for information. She did really mind it. She actually liked when things got more mundane and peaceful

"I found another newspaper from the 50s that might help you," said Camera 9, who had been helping her on the project. "I'll leave it on your desk along with the others"

"Thanks for your help," she said without taking the eyes off the box she was looking on. " You're a life saver, Stefan"

And she turned around only to be face to face with someone unexpected. She almost dropped the recently found newspaper on the ground

"Wrong name, actually, but I take the compliment, I guess"

"Ziggy!" Exclaimed Lyla "I wasn't expecting you here"

"Just came to drop a box of old tapes. Sorry if I scared you"

"No, no, it's all fine, I..." She looked around and noticed her quiet friend wasn't in the room anymore. "...I thought I was alone"

Ziggy gave her a strange look, as if he was trying to decipher a puzzle or something

"Ok, Miss Lay, I will leave you to work in peace" he said brightly after a brief moment, and he intended to leave the room. "Just out of curiosity, who is Stefan?"

"Huh? No one... I mean...that's how I call the potted cactus over there" and she pointed at a small plant that was quielty resting on a shelf. Ziggy looked at it as if he was studying it

"Seems like a nice little fella" he said. Camera 9 was coming in just then. "I'll leave you alone, Miss Lay. Good luck with the column....Hey, Camera 9! See you around, man"

And so he was gone to do this own job.

Camera 9 saw him go in silence before speaking

"Lyla, Dan sent me to work with Mike. Would you mind if I...?"

"No at all, Nine! I'll manage here. Don't worry. " it wasn't like she strictly needed him to help her anyway, but she did like the company.

"All right then, see you around Lyla" he said. Then he turned to the cactus "bye, Stefan"

And so he left.

End of part 2

I am slightly sorry these bits got long... :D.

I plan keep them coming

#duckverse fanfiction #duckverse #pkna #duck avenger #paperinik new adventures #lyla lay #stefan vladuck #camera 9

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schrijverr · 1 year

Text

DnD Night at the Harrington Mansion

Gareth is invited alongside the rest of Hellfire to play DnD at the Harrington mansion, something that is very odd. Throughout the night he meets a much nicer king Steve, who is playing house with their DM. He watches in confusion at their domesticity, wondering how that came about

On AO3.

Ships: Steve x Eddie

Warnings: brief smoking

~~~~~~~~~~

Gareth isn’t sure what happened over spring break. In fact, the whole thing is quite the mystery among the older members of Hellfire, save Eddie, because of course Eddie is at the middle of their conundrum.

Eddie, who got accused of murder. Eddie, who was in the hospital for a month. Eddie, who scrapped a part of his DnD campaign, because it was too gory. Eddie, who is even closer with the three Freshmen that joined this year. Eddie, who somehow managed to befriend Steve Harrington throughout the whole ordeal.

Honestly, if you had told Gareth in Sophomore year that he was going to get invited by Eddie to go to Steve’s house for anything other than committing a crime, he’d think you were insane. Yet here he is, ringing the bell to the Harrington mansion to play DnD.

He half expects Steve to laugh at him, before punching him when he opens the door in his full preppy glory, but instead the man smiles pleasantly and asks: “Gareth, right? Welcome!”

“Uh, yeah, yeah, that’s me,” he replies awkwardly, willing himself to disappear out of the sight of the jock.

Luckily Steve seems to pick up on his awkwardness, because he steps aside to let him in as he tells him: “Take your shoes off, please. The others are through there in the big dining room.”

“Yeah, okay, sure,” Gareth stumbles over his words as he gets in, Steve closing the door and disappearing in the direction he’d pointed to. The big dining room. Of fucking course the Harringtons had multiple dining rooms, Gareth mentally rolls his eyes.

However, when he finds it, he has to admit it’s pretty cool. The walls are a cream greenish-blue and there is a fire place on one side, above it an empty space where the oil painting that’s on the ground next to it, turned away from the viewer, used to hang. The floor has a giant soft Persian rug on it, that looks good on the dark hardwood floor.

The center piece, though, is the table. Made out of equally dark wood, it stands imposing, filling the whole room. It can seat a big group, probably twenty or something, because the DnD party gathered there far from fills it.

Gareth can see why Eddie would want to play here.

Eddie, who has taken over the table like a king at his court. He looks good. The most Eddie-like Gareth has seen him in months. He is seated at the head of the table, sprawled over a fancy chair, wearing a lazy grin as he watches Lucas and Dustin argue about a loophole Dustin thinks he has discovered.

When he spots Gareth, his grin widens and he opens his arms in a dramatic beckoning gesture as he booms: “Ah, Gareth the Great, welcome to our new, less than humble lair.”

“Yeah, man, this is crazy,” Gareth greets, relaxing a little in the big house with Eddie and the annoying kids there, while Steve is nowhere to be seen. “How did you even pull this?”

“I have my charms,” Eddie grins mysteriously as both Dustin and Mike pretend to gag, earning them a small cuff on the head from their DM.

The whole thing leaves Gareth a little confused, but before he can ask about it, he is distracted again by Eddie, who points to a kid Gareth hasn’t met yet. The kid looks vaguely familiar with his brown bowl cut and shier demeanor. Eddie introduces him: “This here, is Will the Wise. A cleric. He’s in town from Cali and will be joining us alongside baby Sinclair for the summer campaign.”

“Hi,” Will says softly, giving Gareth a soft wave.

He looks nice and Gareth knows what it’s like to be not that outgoing and in the middle of a group having to meet new people, so he puts on his kindest smile and waves back, with a: “Hi, nice to meet you.”

The rest of the group seems pleased at his greeting to Will, as if he passed some sort of test. Before they can fall into an awkward silence, however, Erica enters the room again with a drink. Gareth doesn’t know her well, having only played with her once before, but she was a riot then, so he just says hi and goes to sit at the table.

It’s a little awkward.

Not intentionally, of course. Eddie has a thing about making people feel included, he just also gets distracted easily. And the kids are really distracting, albeit in the best way.

They’re loud, yelling arguments to each other as they debate what will happen and discuss strategies for scenarios that might never be. They pester Eddie, who is notorious for never sharing anything, though his steady silence isn’t stopping them. Besides, Eddie looks like he finds the whole thing amusing, making vague comments when they seem to loose steam that send the kids back into a tizzy again.

The room is lively. Fun. It just also feels like the others are way closer with each other than Gareth, even Eddie, who has known for three years already. So, he just sits awkwardly at the fringes and wills Jeff and Chris to come soon.

Throughout the whole wait, he doesn’t see Steve again, almost wondering why the man had agreed to host if he seemingly wants to avoid everyone like they have the plague. Honestly, Gareth would have assumed Steve joined the hunt Eddie down crowd this spring, but apparently not if he was agreeing to let Eddie host his devil’s game here.

He only sees Steve again when the doorbell rings once more. A door to the dining room opens and Steve comes out, followed by the wafting smell of food, which confuses Gareth. Especially when Steve appears to be taking off an apron as he comes by.

“We could have gotten the door, Stevie,” Eddie sighs fondly when Steve rushes out of the kitchen, before anyone has gotten the chance to get up. The deep affection in his tone taking Gareth by surprise, wondering what happened to make his friend sound like that about Steve Harrington, the jock he used to scoff at, even if he would blush about how hot he is right after.

Steve surprises him again by smiling back at Eddie, equally fond, and saying: “But I like hosting and you have a game to play.”

“I set up ages ago,” Eddie protests, though he’s already relenting.

“So did I,” Steve says smugly, then disappears as Eddie rolls his eyes in the background.

Mike fake-gags again and pouts: “You two are terrible. Do you have to be so mushy all the time? I mean, you used to be cool, Eddie.”

“I’m still cool,” Eddie gasps dramatically, sounding incredibly offended at the implication that he isn’t as he brings a hand to his chest.

His actions makes everyone giggle, even Gareth finds himself cracking a smile at their fearless leader finally loosing his seeming coolness to the Freshmen. It’s enough to distract him from the strange interactions between Steve and Eddie.

Then Jeff and Chris finally enter, Steve disappearing back into the kitchen, and their evening can begin, just plain old DnD as they’ve always done.

It’s clear that Jeff and Chris are also a little intimidated and confused by their venue and host, so the three can share glances every once in a while when it hits them again. Or, more accurately, when Eddie hits them again. They already knew the kids adored Steve for some reason, but to see Eddie so comfortable in his house is strange.

It’s all little things that add up throughout the night. The way Eddie carelessly sits in his seat, the way he easily slips into the kitchen and get something to drink when he’s thirsty, the way he doesn’t get lost on his way to the bathroom like Gareth had. Just how comfortable he is. He looks so out of place in the fancy house, yet entirely at ease.

Safe to say that by the time it really gets weird, Gareth, Chris and Jeff are already curious. So, when the next oddity happens, they all notice. Starting with their host showing his face again for the first time since letting them in.

The door to the kitchen opens and there Steve stands, hands on his hips, dishtowel over his shoulder and apron tied around his waist. He looks closer to a housewife than the king of Hawkins High as he says: “Dinner is ready, go sit on the other side to eat, I’m not going to listen to your whining if you get pasta sauce on your character sheets.”

“But Steveeeee,” Dustin whines. “We’re in the middle of an important battle. We can’t just pause the game to eat.”

And Dustin is right that they’re in the middle of their campaign and Eddie hates anything interrupting their campaign at any other time besides the breaks he built into it himself. But it appears that Steve has cooked and none of the older members are gonna go against King Steve, especially not when he’s hosting them for some unknown reason.

However, with how comfortable he is, they all expect Eddie to have about the same reaction as Dustin just had. Naturally that means Eddie surprises them, by going: “No complaining, you heard your mother, Henderson.”

“He’s not my mom,” Dustin complains.

“Sure, whatever,” Eddie grins as the other boys all back Eddie up to make fun of Dustin, getting up to sit at the other half of the table, which is empty.

It’s out of character for Eddie, like so much has been this night and Gareth shares another one of their looks with Jeff and Chris. Eddie is a good guy, but one stubborn bastard, who would never fold or give up what he wants to do just because conforming sheep jock Steve Harrington asked.

Yet, there he is, backing Steve up and covering his notes, before getting up and popping his head in the kitchen and calling out: “You need help there, big boy?”

“Can you do the drinks?” they hear Steve reply, sounding almost apologetic as he comes out of the kitchen juggling a dish of lasagna and two coasters.

“Sure,” Eddie agrees easily, despite the fact that he hates most chores. “Kids, go fetch a drink,” he tells the others, who disappear into the kitchen alongside Steve, also comfortable at the house, as Eddie turns to the other three, still sitting uncomfortably at the table, and asks: “What do you wanna drink? Don’t worry, Stevie always buys everything, even Lucas’ weird New Coke.”

“Uhm, sprite?” Jeff is the first who speaks up.

“Just water,” Chris adds.

“Coke,” Gareth manages himself.

“Cool,” Eddie smiles, then pauses and asks: “Are you three okay? You seem quiet.”

And it’s so very Eddie to worry about them that it eases the tension that had unknowingly crept back up without the game to distract them. Eddie has always been the one, who gave the least fucks, who got between them and the world. He’s always been protective and more kind than people give him credit for.

Gareth gives him a smile and says: “Yeah, man, we’re good. Just fucking weird to be in the Harrington mansion of all places, you know.”

That startles a laugh out of Eddie, who grins: “Fuck, don’t I know it. I broke a vase my first time over, thought I was going to get arrested.”

They all laugh a little and it feels just like old times, even if there has been an inexpiable barrier between them and Eddie ever since spring break. Eddie is still Eddie in the end. Gareth kind of wants to ask him what the deal is between him and Steve, but doesn’t get the chance with the gremlins coming back in, chattering loudly.

The group is followed by Steve, who puts down another dish of lasagna on the empty coaster he brought last time. Telling the group still seated at the play area of the table to make themselves comfortable while he gets plates with a gentle smile.

He has lost the apron, but he is still… off? Domestic. Gareth can’t believe it, but there is no other way to describe this new Steve, who made them all lasagna, hosting their DnD night as he putters around doing the catering. As if he’s some housewife instead of a popular jock.

Though all of them had seen how he changed halfway through his Junior year. How he had left his old friends behind. How he lost his throne to Billy. How he stopped caring. How he become nicer to people.

It seems that went further than any of them could have realized while still walking the halls of Hawkins High with him.

But they can’t help but feel they stepped into an alternate reality as Steve sets the table for them and asks how their game is going, clumsy on the terminology and names, but obviously trying and looking very proud whenever he gets something right.

And it is also very weird how easily they talk to him as they get settled down, for some reason Eddie still at the head of the table, Steve on his right and Dustin on his left.

Steve fills everyone’s plate, telling them he hopes they like lasagna and all of them assuring that they do. It’s odd, Gareth thinks, how Steve’s expression makes one want to reassure him, even if he’s always been the most confident guy around.

However, Gareth also has to concede that this is a very different arena for the former king. So, maybe it’s not that weird to reassure him about the food he cooked for them. Because that is their life now. King Steve making them food for their DnD campaign. It is genuinely good too, another surprising fact that Gareth finds himself not minding in the slightest.

When they’re done with eating, Eddie offers: “Why don’t you go sit down, sweetheart. We can do the dishes.” The petname not registering as weird for any of them, because it’s Eddie, though Steve’s lack of reaction to it is noteworthy in Gareth’s opinion.

“Yeah, you already cooked,” Will pipes up.

“No,” Steve refuses, sounding like this is a common argument. “You have your little game to play and I have nothing better to do. Besides, I like doing the dishes and I am hosting. I’m not letting guests do the dishes.”

He looks almost offended at the thought of anyone implying he would force his guests to do that, which is slightly hilarious.

From across Steve, Dustin rolls his eyes and says: “You need to let that go at some point, Steve. We are over so much that we can hardly be counted as guests at this point.”

“Maybe another day,” Steve says in a way that alludes he doesn’t mean that at all, as he starts stacking dishes, everyone quickly jumping to help. “There are more guests than you shitheads here today anyway. It’s not polite to keep people waiting.”

“You’re not actually responsible for our upbringing, you know that right?” Mike rolls his eyes as he hands Steve a stack of plates and gets up to carry the empty dishes.

“I do,” Steve sniffs. “I just don’t need your bad behavior to reflect on me.”

“Whatever,” Mike says and they both disappear into the kitchen.

Eddie collects everything that couldn’t be carried and hurries after them, soon reemerging with a wet cloth to wipe down the table. Another show of how comfortable he’s gotten there that baffles the trio.

Unable to help himself, Jeff comments: “Who would have thought that Eddie Munson could function in a household.”

At the words, Eddie pauses, looking at his own hands as if he’s only just realizing what he’s doing, the utter domesticity of it all. Then the confused realization makes place for a dopey, dare he say, lovesick smile.

He quickly shakes it off and gives Jeff a crooked smirk and says: “You know me, always doing the least expected. I’m out housewiving the housewives,” which makes everyone at the table crack up, before they move back to their spots.

They quickly loose themselves into the game again, Steve easily put out of mind without his presence there.

The party doesn’t see him again until about an hour later when he comes to refill their drinks and ask if they’re hungry for a snack again. The kids all fall over themselves to tell Steve they’re starving, which is hard to believe with how much food they watched them pack away earlier, but Steve just smiles and nods.

Then he looks at the three not initiated into the weird thing that bonds the others. Gareth, like the others, never says no to snacks, seeing that he is a teen boy himself. However, he feels kind of awkward about it, so he pulls a face that he hopes conveys ‘if it’s not an inconvenience?’

Going off the way Steve smiles back, that message is conveyed.

When he entered, Eddie was just calculating the damage done, so he hasn’t replied by the time Steve checked with everyone else. A part of Gareth assumes that Steve will go ahead with everyone else’s approval, yet Steve does the unexpected again, which he should have seen coming.

He cards a quick hand through Eddie’s hair, another one of those intimate moments between them that Gareth feels like he should be questioning, but he doesn’t even know how to begin questioning them.

The whole group here feels closer than normal people should. They are all a tad too comfortable with each other and Steve and Eddie could very well be that. Still, it feels like more, though Gareth can’t grasp how. He knows Eddie is gay, but Steve? Steve is the straightest man to ever straight, so the only logical conclusion of their closeness can’t be right.

However, as he watches Steve murmur softly about snacks to Eddie, who pats his side absentmindedly and replies: “Sounds great, thanks, baby,” he can’t help but let his mind wonder to the possibility.

Again Steve leaves, returning a little later with more confusion surrounding him. Eddie hates it when their DnD stuff gets messy and has therefore banned many snacks at the table, which leave figurines or dice sticky or dirty.

And at this point, Gareth is proud to say, it doesn’t surprise him when Steve returns with only Eddie approved snacks.

Still, as has been the theme for this evening, Eddie stops mid narration, a think that has never happened in the history of Hellfire. He looks at Steve, who is putting down snacks, and frowns, before asking: “Are you okay, Stevie? You’re looking a little pale there, princess.”

Now that Gareth looks, Steve’s face does look a little pinched as he gives a reassuring smile: “I’m alright, just a bit of a headache starting.”

“If you’re admitting that, it must be bad,” Eddie replies with an achingly fond tone that alludes to how well he knows Steve and how much he cares about him. “Go lie down. I’ll man the hoard, you’ve been a great host tonight, doll.”

Steve puffs up for a moment, looking like he is going to protest, then deflates. He rubs his brow, then gives Gareth, Jeff and Chris an apologetic smile and says: “Sorry for dipping out early, enjoy your game.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, man, of course,” Gareth stumbles out, feeling Eddie’s eyes in the side of his skull daring him to say something bad to Steve right now. “Thanks for hosting us.”

Jeff and Chris quickly follow the sentiment and they see both Steve and Eddie relax for different reasons. Like they would be a dick to Steve, Gareth thinks. Tonight has been strange, but a good kind of strange.

And just as he thinks that, Steve does the strangest good thing he has done all night. He confirms the closeness between him and Eddie that Gareth had picked up on.

He wishes all the kids goodnight, promising to drive them to the arcade this weekend, even ruffling Dustin’s hair as he passes the kid, before pressing a kiss to Eddie’s cheek. The gesture is natural, thoughtless, done so effortlessly that it speaks of the many times he’s done so before. Gareth doesn’t know if Steve has forgotten they were there or if he doesn’t care as he says: “Don’t stay up too long, Eds. I’ll miss you and the kids have a curfew.”

None of the kids pretend to be grossed out by their mushiness, not even Mike. All looking away from the couple with fond eyes, happy they have each other.

Eddie lights up and cups Steve’s cheek, giving Steve a proper peck on the lips as he promises: “I’ll get them home on time, mother hen.”

“Like you’re not just as bad,” Steve teases, tone filled with love.

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie agrees with a big smile on his face, the concession obviously not a hardship in the slightest. “Go take some pain meds and lie down, angel.”

“I will, love you,” Steve says, this time glances at them in a manner that tells Gareth he is aware of their presence, yet he apparently can’t leave without telling Eddie that, so he braves their potential reactions to say it.

The three of them fight to keep positive expressions on their face, none of them wanting Eddie or Steve to think they don’t agree with their relationship. Not the mention the kids, who are all eyeing them like Eddie was earlier, daring them to say something bad.

Eddie is the only one, who doesn’t seem to care, a big smile stretching over his face, the most genuine one Gareth has seen him wear in all their years of friendship. He replies: “I love you too, darling.”

With those words, Steve can tear himself away, giving one last wave, before disappearing into the dark bowels of the house.

None of them speak about what just happened, turning back to their game and ignoring the weirdness of the setting as they have done all evening.

In the end, the game lasts another two hours, before Eddie wraps it up. He assures everyone that he’ll clean up when he gets back, the corrals the kids into packing up their stuff and getting them into the van.

Jeff and Chris got there together and are the first to leave. Gareth doesn’t live too far, so he biked there.

He and Eddie are sharing a smoke as they wait for the kids to get done packing. After a moment of silence, Gareth says: “So, you and Steve.”

“Yeah,” Eddie concurs, seemingly unable to help the giddy smile at the mention of his boyfriend.

“I’m happy for you, man,” Gareth tells him. “You two look good together.”

“Thanks,” Eddie softly replies, looking a bit shy. They have always supported Eddie ever since he came out, but Gareth supposes actions to a reality are different than words to a hypothetical, so he tries not to take offense.

“Of course,” he smiles, then lets it morph into a grin as he jests: “As long as we don’t have to hear about his muscles again. I’ve heard enough during lunch period to last me a lifetime. I don’t need another rundown with more accurate information.”

Eddie lets out a bark of laughter and gives Gareth a light shove as he tells him to “Shut the fuck up, I’m not joking, Gareth.”

By then, the kids come piling out of the house and they both extinguish their cigarettes. Gareth claps Eddie on the back again and says: “See you around, Eddie. Don’t leave us hanging for too long with that cliffhanger. And ask Steve for his lasagna recipe. It was killer.”

“Will do,” Eddie grins brightly, before skipping over to his van, calling out the window: “Bike home safely!”

Gareth calls back: “Who’s the mother hen now?”

That gets him a “Fuck you!” and a middle finger as Eddie screeches out of the driveway and onto the road. Gareth just laughs at him, waiting until the danger that is Eddie behind the wheel is gone before getting on his bike.

After tonight, Gareth still isn’t sure what happened over spring break. In fact, Eddie has both semi-solved the mystery and made it worse by introducing this new relationship to Steve into the mix of weird shit he already does. The fucker probably likes being at the center of some weird plot.

Eddie, who got accused of loosing also being a mother hen. Eddie, who co-hosts from the Harrington mansion. Eddie, who now plays house, offering to do the dishes and cleaning up the table for Steve. Eddie, who is weirdly close with a group of kids. Eddie, who somehow managed to get into a relationship with Steve Harrington.

Honestly, if you had told Gareth anything of what happened tonight in Sophomore year, he would think you were insane. Yet here he is, biking home after playing DnD at the Harrington mansion, because their DM is dating Steve. What an odd world they live in, Gareth is pretty sure nothing in Hawkins could top this evening in weirdness.

A/N:

That one scene is based of my grandma, who refuses to let us do the dishes in her house, no matter how many times we offer or try. Like, if you allude to the fact of doing it, she’ll get up earlier to do them, just in case. It’s sweet, but also oma, lemme help!!

Also, I love writing oblivious characters, people who don’t know. Outsider POVs are one of my favorite things out there :D

#rr writing #tw: smoking #stranger things fic #stranger things #gareth stranger things #jeff stranger things #steve x eddie #steve harrington #eddie lives au #steve harrington x eddie munson #eddie munson #st the party #the party stranger things #the party #outsiders pov #steddie

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